Season Ticket Purchases

lee636

Hi all,

I’ve been doing my best to search the forums for the answer to my question but to no avail.

Does anyone know of any tricks/hints that allows purchasers of either weekly or monthly rail tickets in the London zones to save anything?

My journey will soon consist of travelling from Waterloo East to Zone 4 and back on a daily basis (work commute) and will be from 8am outward and 5.30/6pm return.

My partner will do a similar journey but in the opposite direction, Waterloo to Claygate, same hours.

The only information on pricing I can find is the national rail website and their season ticket tool.

Has anyone made a similar regular journey and saved by doing anything in particular?

Any information would obviously be great!

Any large money saved will go towards the helper getting a beer (or two via paypal!)

Thanks all for any replies!

Lee :beer:

Altarf

1 - Buy an annual ticket (if you can afford it, or some employers will give interest free loans)

2 - For the train season ticket (I am not sure about your Travelcard) you can buy "monthly" tickets for any period over a month. Buy them for a Monday to Friday over a five week period and every five weeks you save paying for a weekend.

3 - Fill in any gaps (Christmas, holidays, etc) with weekly tickets.

4 - Use a cash-back credit card.

5 - Work out if it is cheaper to use Oyster PAYG, rather than get a season ticket. Zone 1 - 4 on the tube is £2.50 each way, so £5 a day, £25 a week. A weekly season ticket is £34.60, so unless you are going to use £9.60's worth of extra tickets, PAYG is cheaper.

6 - Submit a claim every time the train or tube is late or cancelled (check the train company or tube for details).

surreysaver

lee636 wrote: »

Hi all,
My journey will soon consist of travelling from Waterloo East to Zone 4 and back on a daily basis (work commute) and will be from 8am outward and 5.30/6pm return.

My partner will do a similar journey but in the opposite direction, Waterloo to Claygate, same hours.

When you say Zone 4, I assume you're using the Underground? Or do you mean a specific National Rail station in Zone 4? If that is the case, then a point-to-point season would be cheaper than a Travelcard. You would only need a zones 1-4 season if you're using London Transport Buses or Underground.

lee636

Thanks all for the replies, i think that a point to point is going to be the overall cheapest simply because i wont divert from this route often enough to justify the travelcard.

:beer:

geordieracer

If you are going to be doing it regularly then buy a point to point annual ticket. This is the cheapest way as you only pay for 40 weeks instead of 52 and your goldcard will give you discounts on other journeys you want to make and also family discounts if you travel with them at a weekend.