Rail costs - how can my son save money?

dragonfly1_2

My son is living at home in Kent but travelling to London Bridge station to uni most days. He buys a monthly season ticket as this seems to cut the cost a little but it still costs him £220 per month and out of his student loan it doesn't leave him much change for anything else!!
Can anyone give me any ideas on how he can save a little money? He tends to travel during peak times in the morning but not always at peak times coming home. The whole train travel issue is a real nightmare as it seems so complex - any help would be really, really appreciated.

djl

Hi

the only saving is a young persons railcard but that has a mininum fare of £8.00 on on single and £16.00 on a return the only other way is a twelve month season as you only pay for forty weeks ( this is only worth it if its used for twelve months) hope this helps

djl

ps

welcome to mse

louise_1981

Ito clarify the previous poster after discount the fare still has to be over £8 single£16 return. Which I would think was not that expensive!

http://www.youngpersons-railcard.co.uk/terms_conditions.htm you can have a look here.

It does suggest that a season ticket would give a better discount.

Alternatively, could he not rent a room, or a floor somewhere closer to university. Sorry I went to uni just north of manchester, and I expect the prices were a lot cheaper than in london.

anewman

I'm guessing there's no student passes available? In West Yorkshire we have something called a student metropass that lets you travel within West Yorkshire on bus or train included in the cost of the pass. If there's anything like this available, even for part of the journey, could be worth looking at.

I used a student metro pass when I studied at Huddersfield University and I live in Leeds.

teedy23

you see in Scotland they just hide in the toilets

airforce_beret

i believe some banks offer a student railcard if you open a student account with them. natwest were doing this for a while. might be worth looking into

dzug

Believe me, commuter rail travel from Kent to London is simple in terms of tickets. Just expensive. No faffing about with endless permutations of cheap advance tickets. And as it's one train company setting the fares splitting the journey by rebooking is unlikely to help.

Some towns in Kent have a commuter coach service to London - slow but cheap. Maybe worth looking at?