Buying daily return tickets is cheaper than season tickets!

david81_2

Hi all

I currently buy a daily return ticket from Twickenham - Reading costing me £12.80 a day. Now this works out cheaper than buying a season ticket since Its going out of London rather than going in (if going into London daily ticket costs £24!) This is a ridiculous costing method by national rail and forces me to have to buy a ticket every morning since buying a monthly season ticket will cost me extra.

Just wondered if anyone else travels this way and has any advice in changing payment method.

Note: It’s not the price, I’m perfectly happy paying that amount (well as happy as one can be ) But is there a way to pay the same amount without having to queue at the ticket machines every morning!

Many Thanks!

slyracoon

Buy the tickets for the week/month in advance online and then just make one trip to a machine to collect them all.

Mids_Costcutter

When I've been working part-time I've also bought dated return tickets for the week ahead at the ticket counter.

wealdroam

david81 wrote: »

Note: It’s not the price, I’m perfectly happy paying that amount (well as happy as one can be ) But is there a way to pay the same amount without having to queue at the ticket machines every morning!

Many Thanks!

As suggested above, buy a week's worth (or more) all at once in the one visit to the ticket office.

david81_2

Those are some good ideas! Thanks guys!

yorkie2

If you work 5 days per week (Mon-Fri) then a Season ticket for a period of 1 month 2 days would normally cover a 5 week block, that costs £305-50, which works out at £12.38 - a very small saving but perhaps worth it for the convenience?

(The price will vary as the base cost is a calendar month, which varies in value for money as it can last 28/29/30/31 days; you can add any number of days to make it a 5 week block starting on a Monday (or Tues if it's a bank hol!) and finishing on a Friday. Also factor in annual leave requirements)

Tigernaut

Must recommend trying to buy your seaon tickets online, or at least double check the price. Just looked at my Annual Season ticket Lancing to Chichester, £1620. Went to station and was quoted £1998. Big difference which really surprised me with a premium of over 23%.

Hintza

Check online for discount offers. Scotrail used to do 20% off. ou can buy 3 months worthof tickets in advance (very tedious to do though).

yorkie2

Tigernaut wrote: »

Must recommend trying to buy your seaon tickets online, or at least double check the price. Just looked at my Annual Season ticket Lancing to Chichester, £1620. Went to station and was quoted £1998. Big difference which really surprised me with a premium of over 23%.

The only standard class season between LAC and CCH costs £1620, so I don't know how on earth you were quoted £1998! The ticket seller must have made a mistake and tried to sell you a different ticket.

property.advert

Most stations going into London have the prices on a poster on the wall. Their prices exactly match the online ones.

There are anomalies for instance, where you split two monthly tickets say from Place A to Place B where B is in Zone 4 and you buy a 4 zone travelcard, it working out cheaper than the whole ticket plus travelcard. Best I found was a few hundred a year on a circa £4500 spend.