Rail Season Tickets pricing oddness....

Stinkybell

Apologies if I'm missing something obvious here,

I need to get the train to work for at least the next couple of weeks, so was looking at the cost of a season ticket.

7 day standard adult - £48.70
1 month standard adult - £187.10
Anytime Day Return - £9.10

Like any "normal" person, I only work Monday to Friday, 5 days a week. Does this mean I'm better off buying a ticket every day?

5 x £9.10 = £45.50 = £2.20 less than a weekly
20 x £9.10 = £182.00 = £5.10 less than a monthly, £12.80 less than 4 weeklys (Thanks to February, there's only 20 commuting days in a monthly ticket)

Please can someone tell me why this is, or more likely, how I've managed to screw the maths so baldy!

spugzbunny

No you are right - and I'm sure the train company are aware of this! They just love that money making!

spiro

I would make sure the Anytime Day Return is just that 'anytime'.

wealdroam

Are you able to tell us the origin and destination?

Ebe_Scrooge

spiro wrote: »

I would make sure the Anytime Day Return is just that 'anytime'.

Yes, I'd echo that advice.

A weekly ticket is normally a little bit cheaper than 5 daily returns, though not massively so. But as a previous poster pointed out, I wouldn't be too surprised if it does actually work out cheaper to buy dailies !!

Edit - if your times are flexible, see if you're able to get away with off-peak returns - these WILL be cheaper than a weekly season, but obviously most commuters have to travel at peak times, so can't use off-peak tickets.

dzug1

Stinkybell wrote: »

Apologies if I'm missing something obvious here,

I need to get the train to work for at least the next couple of weeks, so was looking at the cost of a season ticket.

7 day standard adult - £48.70
1 month standard adult - £187.10
Anytime Day Return - £9.10

Like any "normal" person, I only work Monday to Friday, 5 days a week. Does this mean I'm better off buying a ticket every day?

5 x £9.10 = £45.50 = £2.20 less than a weekly
20 x £9.10 = £182.00 = £5.10 less than a monthly, £12.80 less than 4 weeklys (Thanks to February, there's only 20 commuting days in a monthly ticket)

Please can someone tell me why this is, or more likely, how I've managed to screw the maths so baldy!

For some reason there is an anomaly with your fare. It may be a mistake, it may be the side effect of something else.

Without knowing the particular journey (and maybe not even then) it's impossible to tell which.

tripled

If you always buy your monthly ticket on a Monday, apart from February you will get 22-23 days use from it (as it lasts a calendar month), so provided you aren't off for any reason it would work out a bit cheaper. I would agree though the season ticket prices don't seem very good for your route. Are there any restrictions on the Anytime tickets (e.g. a particular operator or route) that aren't on the season ticket?

I wish my season ticket cost less than £200 a month...

AirlieBird

This does look rather strange. There are set formulas for pricing monthly and annual tickets: A monthly ticket is 3.84 times the price of a weekly, and an annual 40 times the price of a weekly.

I'm not sure what the formula is for a weekly, if there is one. Usually they are priced around the cost of 4 returns, although it appears to vary between operators.

As others have said without knowing the route it's difficult to advise.

dzug1

One possibility is if the normal return ticket is differently priced according to the direction of outward travel. Happens a bit in the London area where tickets heading to (or towards) London can be more expensive that those issued to travel away from London.

Seasons, not being directional, will be based on a multiple of the more expensive ticket

chuckley

this has become more apparent with 2011 fares, which is why everyone must check the daily peak cost if u only use it 5x a week.

Stinkybell

dzug1 wrote: »

One possibility is if the normal return ticket is differently priced according to the direction of outward travel. Happens a bit in the London area where tickets heading to (or towards) London can be more expensive that those issued to travel away from London.

Seasons, not being directional, will be based on a multiple of the more expensive ticket

Mystery solved!

I live in London zone 3 and commute out into the home counties. The same journey in reverse costs £12.30 for the Anytime Day Return which is £61.50 a week or £246 for 4 weeks, making the seasons much better value!

Thanks