Is there any way of saving money on monthly rail tickets?

puddy

Travel costs for my partner are £348pm on his monthly season rail ticket from the coast to London. I would love to find a way to get this cheaper, but note that the offers are usually for off peak travel or single journeys. He is committed to his job for the next year or so before he starts to look locally but in the meantime the costs are eating into our budget, plus he will be earning a lot less down here so he is wanting to stay where he is really.

the rail company is Southeastern on the Ramsgate to London line although he only goes into zone 2 with no tube journey.

geordieracer

There are no discounts on a monthly as you are using peak time trains. You should look into getting an annual travelcard(work places normally provide funding if you cant straight up) this will give you 12 weeks FREE travel and as its a goldcard will also get you discounts when you wan to travel with him for w weekend in town or such like.

KeithP

Jenner, I think there are several commuter coaches in that area.
Have a look and see if there is one suitable and cheaper.

Sorry, I don't know how you find one... local paper?

Mark_Hewitt

Yep, if you can be sure you're going to be using the train all the time for the next 12 months then a years pass is a good idea.

However. You can make nearly just as much saving using monthly tickets, but without the massive outlay at the start.

It's very simple to do, just make sure of two things.
* Buy your ticket on a Monday (or have it start on a Monday) but don't just have it run for a straight month then get another one. You can extend monthly season tickets for any number of days over the month pro-rata, so always have it end on a Friday.

That way you are not paying for the Saturday and Sunday between the end of one ticket and the start of the next.

* Use the same method above to make sure that when you take your holidays, you never have a valid ticket. This means planning things a month or two in advance, but the savings are worthwhile.

If you miss out the weekends and holidays you can usually get the cost down to within a few pounds of buying a yearly pass.

puddy

thanks, yes there are commuter coaches but his journey is already over 2.5 hours on the train, it would be much longer on a coach, although much cheaper.

he used to drive, it was quicker by car but unreliable due to the motorways and also more in petrol than the train.

Mark_Hewitt

jenner wrote: »

he used to drive, it was quicker by car but unreliable due to the motorways and also more in petrol than the train.

Car vs Train depends where you are going I suppose.

Myself I live literally 2 minutes walk from the train station but I still drive to work, mostly because driving takes 1 hr 20 minutes, whereas the train takes at minimum 1 hr 45 minutes by the time you take into account the bus you have to get in York.

geordieracer

jenner wrote: »

thanks, yes there are commuter coaches but his journey is already over 2.5 hours on the train, it would be much longer on a coach, although much cheaper.

he used to drive, it was quicker by car but unreliable due to the motorways and also more in petrol than the train.

2.5 hours?? cant be right.. I get the first one off of ramsgate a couple of times amonth and your still in london by 0630 ish...

Nat express do a coach but it goes up the A2 most times as goes to faversham and sittingbourne and if it gets caught in traffic then your screwed...

You could go and do What Mark said but you have to be dedictaed and up to speed with it each time or else you lose any benefit.

Mark_Hewitt

geordieracer wrote: »

You could go and do What Mark said but you have to be dedictaed and up to speed with it each time or else you lose any benefit.

Yep, but as Martin himself said, you have to treat it as part of your 'moneysaving' job, same as you need to stay on top of credit cards, energy suppliers, insurance etc etc.

It does need a bit of effort but given the OP's circumstances they could save upwards of £500 over buying a monthly pass every month.

If you are absolutely sure you're going to need the pass for 12 months however, that is still the best option. But again you'd need to be canny with paying for it if your employer won't help you, 0% credit card is one way to do it. National Express did/does an installment scheme but not sure if they do it any more.

puddy

geordieracer wrote: »

2.5 hours?? cant be right.. I get the first one off of ramsgate a couple of times amonth and your still in london by 0630 ish...

Nat express do a coach but it goes up the A2 most times as goes to faversham and sittingbourne and if it gets caught in traffic then your screwed...

You could go and do What Mark said but you have to be dedictaed and up to speed with it each time or else you lose any benefit.

yes, he gets the 6.14 i think, gets into elephant and castle at about 8.43, gets to work about 10 mins later. he leaves work at 5, train gets in at 7.18 and home by 7.30.

the car journey used to be about 2 hours IF the A2 in London wasnt too bad but often if there was an accident on the M2,, it took hours more

Mark_Hewitt

jenner wrote: »

yes, he gets the 6.14 i think, gets into elephant and castle at about 8.43, gets to work about 10 mins later. he leaves work at 5, train gets in at 7.18 and home by 7.30.

the car journey used to be about 2 hours IF the A2 in London wasnt too bad but often if there was an accident on the M2,, it took hours more

Blimey. And I thought my commute was bad.