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Buying daily return tickets is cheaper than season tickets!

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 :p) But is there a way to pay the same amount without having to queue at the ticket machines every morning!

Many Thanks!

Comments

  • slyracoon
    slyracoon Posts: 428 Forumite
    Buy the tickets for the week/month in advance online and then just make one trip to a machine to collect them all.
  • When I've been working part-time I've also bought dated return tickets for the week ahead at the ticket counter.
  • wealdroam
    wealdroam Posts: 19,180 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    david81 wrote: »
    Note: It’s not the price, I’m perfectly happy paying that amount (well as happy as one can be :p) 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.
  • Those are some good ideas! Thanks guys!

    :)
  • yorkie2
    yorkie2 Posts: 1,595 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    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)
  • 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
    Hintza Posts: 19,420 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    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
    yorkie2 Posts: 1,595 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    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.
  • 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.
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