Is there any way to save on train season tickets?

pinkteapot

£4,400 for me and I only work three days a week. But it's still a third cheaper than buying day returns on the days I work!

On my line the cheapest way to buy is an annual season ticket. Annual is cheaper than 12 monthlies which in turn are cheaper than 52 weeklies.

My line runs a "season direct" scheme which is a monthly DD and they send you a ticket in the post each month. However, this actually works out more expensive over the year than an annual season ticket.

Most train companies do 'delay repay', so if a journey is delayed by more than 30 or 60 minutes (depending on the train operator) you fill in a form and get a voucher for a few quid. Fill these in every time you get delayed and you can use them all when you buy your next season ticket. About the only money-saving action there is I'm afraid. I printed out the form, filled in my name, address, season ticket number etc then made lots of photocopies. Now I just fill in the date and time of the delayed journey so it only takes 30 seconds.

I've never known a company assist with costs but most companies in London offer interest free season ticket loans. So, they give you a cheque to buy your annual season ticket with and it's taken from your salary in 12 monthly installments. This means you can get the cheapest ticket available without having to save up the big lump sum. Annoyingly I work for one of the small minority that don't offer this. I'm not sure how commonplace it is in cities other than London but it will be worth asking.

I do buy my season ticket with my Amex Platinum card which earns 1% cashback so at least that's £44 off...

dzug1

London_Town wrote: »

otherwise I could maybe look at a ticket from Telford to Wolverhampton and then another one on to New Street.

You could do that - it's more expensive

It's frustrating that even though you pay to be able to travel anytime on any day, you can't lend a season ticket to friends and family as it has your photograph on it. I think that's one of my biggest gripes. If I have a day off work now, I save on the cost of the fuel to get me there. If I commute by a rail season ticket and have a day off, I've still paid. It seems a shame that the system won't allow you to buy a season ticket for 20 working days a month rather than the full 30.

Even it didn't have your photo on it would still be fraudulent to lend it to a friend

Season tickets are generally priced on (roughly) 4 journeys a week so you are getting anything over that 'free'

London_Town

Thanks pinkteapot, that's a very useful post. I think the Amex purchase is as good as it gets.

London_Town

dzug1 wrote: »

You could do that - it's more expensive



Even it didn't have your photo on it would still be fraudulent to lend it to a friend

Season tickets are generally priced on (roughly) 4 journeys a week so you are getting anything over that 'free'

Cheers dzug1. Yes, I've since looked and it is a more expensive way to do things.

I didn't realise that that the tickets were priced on roughly 4 journeys a week. So yes, working a 5 day week and using the season ticket to get there is clearly a good deal. I suppose I just had no idea how expensive rail travel was. It's barely an alternative to the car if you just look at it in a money saving context.

pinkteapot

London_Town wrote: »

I didn't realise that that the tickets were priced on roughly 4 journeys a week.

Again it varies by company but, as I said before, on my line it's cheaper to buy a season ticket than to buy peak-rate returns three days a week. Mine works out the same as travelling 1.9 days a week. :eek:

The reason is (if you're interested in the geeky knowledge) that some rail fares are regulated (the government places caps on them) and some are unregulated. Season tickets are regulated fares and so you'll see in the news that the annual increase is limited to inflation plus x%.

Anytime returns (i.e. peak-rate day returns) are unregulated. Train companies can charge whatever they like. They charge a fortune because people travelling at peak time generally have no choice but to travel at peak-time.

For my journey, an Anytime Return is £45. If I was working five days a week, 48 weeks a year (after taking holiday), it would cost £10,800 using daily tickets. :eek:

Compared to that, the season ticket price of £4,400 seems, well, I can't actually say reasonable. But it's less.

London_Town

pinkteapot wrote: »

Again it varies by company but, as I said before, on my line it's cheaper to buy a season ticket than to buy peak-rate returns three days a week. Mine works out the same as travelling 1.9 days a week. :eek:

The reason is (if you're interested in the geeky knowledge) that some rail fares are regulated (the government places caps on them) and some are unregulated. Season tickets are regulated fares and so you'll see in the news that the annual increase is limited to inflation plus x%.

Anytime returns (i.e. peak-rate day returns) are unregulated. Train companies can charge whatever they like. They charge a fortune because people travelling at peak time generally have no choice but to travel at peak-time.

For my journey, an Anytime Return is £45. If I was working five days a week, 48 weeks a year (after taking holiday), it would cost £10,800 using daily tickets. :eek:

Compared to that, the season ticket price of £4,400 seems, well, I can't actually say reasonable. But it's less.

Pinkteapot, that's not geeky at all but very useful to know. You've explained to me how the prise rises are worked out which is all part of projecting future costs.

I wonder why season tickets are regulated? Does it go back to when British Rail was privatised and the government wanted to "protect" the consumer from capitalist exploitation?

Jeff_Bridges_hair

pinkteapot wrote: »

For my journey, an Anytime Return is £45. If I was working five days a week, 48 weeks a year (after taking holiday), it would cost £10,800 using daily tickets. :eek:

Compared to that, the season ticket price of £4,400 seems, well, I can't actually say reasonable. But it's less.

in a way you can as you are only paying for 40 weeks so in essence those 8 weeks above are FREE travel to from your destination, as many times as you like at any time you like.

pinkteapot

On the subject of the annual increase in the price, there was a big hoo-hah about it this year.

Season tickets go up on 1st January.

The cap used to be "inflation plus 3%". With inflation running so high late last year, it meant that rail companies could increase prices by 8%. Also, each rail company can increase their season ticket prices by an average of that number. So, they can put season ticket prices on rarely used routes up by say 6% and hike it from popular stations by 10%, and still meet the average. My line published prices and people from station were facing an 11% increase!

There was a big outcry as British trains are already massively more expensive than those in Europe and the government reduced the cap to "inflation plus 1%", because inflation is running so high.

Even so, mine increased from £4,184 to £4,376 (4.5%). Wages are frozen at my company for the third year running. *sigh*

yorkie2

pinkteapot wrote: »

Season tickets go up on 1st January.

Not quite, they went up on 2nd January this year. A useful trick is to buy a Season that starts on the 1st of January - even if you're not using it until the 2nd - as it will be at the old price

There does seem to be confusion in this thread, someone mentioned 3-monthly tickets, but between monthly and annual seasons are priced at the monthly rate but can be for any period. So if someone just so happened to want 3 calendar months (which is unlikely) then that would be fine, but it is best to buy them in blocks of typically 5 weeks (varying that as required) taking into account bank holidays and annual leave.