Season Train Ticket prices - help needed

Iamstressed

:j

I am due to start a new job in London so need to find out the cheapest train ticket from Kings Lynn to London - weekly ticket/advance tickets/season ticket or whatever they are called now? Where do i find out about all the different prices?


Can anyone help?

Thank you

:beer:

KeithP

National Rail Enquiries sounds like a good place to start, doesn't it?
Google it.

gner_ex

Is your office near Kings Cross, Moorgate or Liverpool Street, or do you need a ticket that lets you go further into London on the underground or Thameslink?

As a guide, a ticket to the three stations I stated costs the following:

7 Days 1 Month 3 Months 6 Months 12 Months £105.50 £405.20 £1,215.40 £2,430.80 £4,220.00
If you can afford, always buy the annual (many employers do season ticket loans).

Cardelia

gner_ex wrote: »

Is your office near Kings Cross, Moorgate or Liverpool Street, or do you need a ticket that lets you go further into London on the underground or Thameslink?

As a guide, a ticket to the three stations I stated costs the following:

7 Days 1 Month 3 Months 6 Months 12 Months £105.50 £405.20 £1,215.40 £2,430.80 £4,220.00
If you can afford, always buy the annual (many employers do season ticket loans).

The annual ticket does not always work out as the most cost-efficient method of travel. For example, Woking-London (inc. underground) is £277.70 per month but £2892 per year - in effect, you get 6 "free" weeks with the annual ticket compared to 12 monthly tickets. But if you think about the amount of time off you get - annual leave, Christmas, Easter, bank holidays etc., most of those 6 "free" weeks will be unused anyway, so it's not really saving money.

If you time the purchase of your monthly ticket correctly, there will be 5 or 6 occasions throughout the year when the monthly ticket ends on a Friday. This means you don't need to purchase another one until Monday. With a bit of luck, these weekends will coincide with your holidays (or bank holidays) meaning you don't have to pay train costs when you're on holiday.

I know there are often other benefits for getting annual season tickets - SWT give you a 33% discount card for other SWT fares, for example. But I wouldn't use these things, so for me it's going to be more cost-effective (and certainly easier in terms of spreading the cost) to get monthly tickets.

Altarf

Iamstressed wrote: »

I am due to start a new job in London so need to find out the cheapest train ticket from Kings Lynn to London

A two hour plus commute each way, I hope it's a good job!

KeithP wrote: »

National Rail Enquiries sounds like a good place to start, doesn't it?
Google it.

Actually it's not the best place, as National Rail Enquiries only gives 'rail only' season ticket prices.

For the OP the best place to check would be https://www.fcc.trainsfares.co.uk/season/st_home.asp?sitecode=FCC as it also gives the travelcard options. (whilst you are just checking for prices, where it asks for a photocard number, put in any number, it doesn't check for validity).

Cardelia wrote: »

The annual ticket does not always work out as the most cost-efficient method of travel. ... in effect, you get 6 "free" weeks with the annual ticket compared to 12 monthly tickets. But if you think about the amount of time off you get - annual leave, Christmas, Easter, bank holidays etc., most of those 6 "free" weeks will be unused anyway, so it's not really saving money.

If you time the purchase of your monthly ticket correctly, there will be 5 or 6 occasions throughout the year when the monthly ticket ends on a Friday. This means you don't need to purchase another one until Monday.

This is a nice theory, but it doesn't actually work. Someone else posted the '5 week' ticket theory here a few weeks ago and having a few minutes spare I checked how it would have compared to my last years travel. The conclusion I came to was that at best it would work out to the same price as the annual ticket, and you would then have to plan any holiday very precisely to fit in with the tickets. If you didn't, then it would work out more expensive.

gner_ex wrote: »

Is your office near Kings Cross, Moorgate or Liverpool Street, or do you need a ticket that lets you go further into London on the underground or Thameslink?

The annual travelcard fare from Kings Lynn is £5,260, so unless the OP is doing a lot of travelling around London, then a 'London Terminals' season ticket and then use Oyster PAYG will probably work out cheaper for two journeys per day (to and from the station). There is a calculaor here which will help you work out if it is cheaper - http://www.mediauk.com/content/oyster-card-calculator.muk

Iamstressed

KeithP wrote: »

National Rail Enquiries sounds like a good place to start, doesn't it?
Google it.

I did start there :rolleyes: but found out its NOT much help!;)

Iamstressed

Altarf wrote: »

A two hour plus commute each way, I hope it's a good job!

Have been working in Norwich for the last five years so driving an hour plus each way every day
so, yes its a better job than i can get anywhere in Kings Lynn! Plus i can hopefully work or sleep on the train lol

Thanks for all your help :beer:

Iamstressed

gner_ex wrote: »

Is your office near Kings Cross, Moorgate or Liverpool Street, or do you need a ticket that lets you go further into London on the underground or Thameslink?

If you can afford, always buy the annual (many employers do season ticket loans).

I will be working near London Bridge - Thanks for your help :beer:

gner_ex

Kings Lynn to London Bridge season ticket:

7 Days 1 Month 3 Months 6 Months 12 Months £113.50 £435.90 £1,307.60 £2,615.10 £4,540.00
This ticket is rail only - i.e. rail into Kings Cross, then 2 minute walk, then rail from St. Pancras to London Bridge (you can't normally use the underground, except when there are problems on the trains and it is announced that "London Underground will accept tickets by reasonable routes").

Altarf - can you substantiate (using a worked example) how it might be cheaper to have two seperate tickets that one out of boundary travelcard? I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm just curious.

Iamstressed (and indeed Cardelia) - its worth point out that a season ticket can also be used at the weekend. This chap could use his (for example) to go from Kings Lynn to Cambridge at the weekend, indeed any places that are on the line(s) of route of his season ticket. Cardelia - just because you don't use the train at weekends (or when you're on holiday) doesn't mean that others are the same - I know I certainly do.

Altarf

gner_ex wrote: »

Altarf - can you substantiate (using a worked example) how it might be cheaper to have two seperate tickets that one out of boundary travelcard? I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm just curious.

Kings Lynn to London £4,220, but with a Travelcard £5,260, so an annual cost of £1,040.

Now obviously the OP is working near London Bridge, so theoretically they could buy a London Bridge ticket at £4,540, but that is only valid on trains to London Bridge and not the tube. So the OP would be limited to trains coming into Kings Cross, and then changing onto a Thameslink train at St Pancras, so probably not a good idea on top of a two hour commute. Being able to use the tube, would be a lot more flexible.

If the OP bought two zone 1 Oyster Card journeys every day, which is a more 'like for like' comparison with the travelcard, rather than the limitations of a 'train only' ticket, that would cost £3 per day, so assuming 228 working days (8 bank holidays and the legal minimum of 24 days holiday) is £684, saving £356 against the travelcard.

Obviously they would then have to buy pay to travel in London if they did so after work or at weekends, but £356 buys a lot of tickets.

Cardelia

gner_ex wrote: »

Iamstressed (and indeed Cardelia) - its worth point out that a season ticket can also be used at the weekend. This chap could use his (for example) to go from Kings Lynn to Cambridge at the weekend, indeed any places that are on the line(s) of route of his season ticket. Cardelia - just because you don't use the train at weekends (or when you're on holiday) doesn't mean that others are the same - I know I certainly do.

Why would I need to use the trains when I'm on holiday? It's not as though you can go anywhere other than London with my ticket anyway.

I've done some calculations for my personal situation, and for me it does actually work out slightly cheaper using a combination of monthly and weekly season tickets than it does buying one annual ticket. I'm sure it's not the same for everyone, but it is something worth looking into if you do buy annual season tickets - don't just dismiss the idea out of hand.