Commuting costs to London?

dawyldthing

http://splitticket.moneysavingexpert.com/results.php?departure=SSD&arrival=LST&railcard=&travellers=adult&type=walkonsingle&nextday=1&hour=7&minute=11 you can get it for 19.60 by splitting it

henrygregory

dawyldthing wrote: »

http://splitticket.moneysavingexpert.com/results.php?departure=SSD&arrival=LST&railcard=&travellers=adult&type=walkonsingle&nextday=1&hour=7&minute=11 you can get it for 19.60 by splitting it

Thanks for that clever tip. I had not got round to trying this yet. Only problem is I go from Stansted Mountfitchet (there are two Stansted stations, one is the airport, the other is not). I will give it a go in a second.

My only concern is, I would need to ask for these tickets every time. Occasionally the ticket office is not open which could be a problem. I wonder if you could order the tickets a day in advance, so say when I go home, I could order the ones for the next day at London Liverpool Street before I leave?

AP007

henrygregory wrote: »

Thanks for that clever tip. I had not got round to trying this yet. Only problem is I go from Stansted Mountfitchet (there are two Stansted stations, one is the airport, the other is not). I will give it a go in a second.

My only concern is, I would need to ask for these tickets every time. Occasionally the ticket office is not open which could be a problem. I wonder if you could order the tickets a day in advance, so say when I go home, I could order the ones for the next day at London Liverpool Street before I leave?

You can buy any ticket in advance

Russe11

If your doing split tickets then I find its easier to buy them at the machine, otherwise I always seem to end up with some jobsworth that says to me you need to break the journey, like the imply you have to get off and get back on. Happened to me just the other day, not that they are right, but it must be they are encouraged not to sell split tickets.

henrygregory

Russe11 wrote: »

If your doing split tickets then I find its easier to buy them at the machine, otherwise I always seem to end up with some jobsworth that says to me you need to break the journey, like the imply you have to get off and get back on. Happened to me just the other day, not that they are right, but it must be they are encouraged not to sell split tickets.

Ok, I see, thanks for the tip. The only thing that confuses me is that the link dawyldthing provided to ticketysplit seems to show a single journey to Liverpool Street but not a return, is this why it appears cheaper?

Rockporkchop

There is a National Express coach that goes from Stansted to Liverpool Street, takes approx an hour and a quarter and is about £15 return per day (or was the last time I looked). I think you can get a coach season ticket too as I'm sure a couple of my colleagues do that.

Or if you don't have any ties at home in the week you could look at mondaytofriday.com. You could get a weekday room for roughly the cost of the fares but without the hassle of travelling.

Russe11

henrygregory wrote: »

Ok, I see, thanks for the tip. The only thing that confuses me is that the link dawyldthing provided to ticketysplit seems to show a single journey to Liverpool Street but not a return, is this why it appears cheaper?

yeah well generally you can assume the spilt will give a simular result return, but not always.

I tend to find its best to check it manually on a ticket site and double check the savings.

Some times the shorter journeys are same day only, opposed to 30 day returns.

whitewing

You would need to double check the info that I am about to give you but I think it's true.

If you book a national express ticket and don't use a portion of it (e.g. you go somewhere else after work on a whim), provided you ring the number on the ticket before the time of the cancelled journey, you can get a credit to do the same leg of the journey on a different date. Obviously that depends on availability, but they seem pretty flexible.

How many days of the year would you be going in?

Nick_C

In the Southern area, a weekly season is cheaper than 3 standard day returns. Peak time day returns on your route seem unusually cheap.

I would suggest you take the train every day. Your petrol is likely to cost around £19.50 (the difference between 3 returns and a weekly season) for two days, plus wear and tear on the car.

Monthly seasons are cheaper, pro rata, than weeklies, and you can buy a season for any number of days in excess of a month.

A season for 25 Feb to 28 March inclusive (second half of this term) would be £407.30, and cover 5 weeks, costing £81.46 per week. Put it on a credit card that gives you some rewards (if you clear your card each month).

I've just stopped commuting 4 hours a day from Worthing to Zone 2, at a cost of more than £4K per annum. What made it worth it for me was not just the higher London salary, but the fact that I was in a final salary pension scheme.

InsideInsurance

Generally the longer you buy your season ticket for the cheaper it gets. Many employers give an interest free annual season ticket loans and so that may be an option if this is to be a long term setup.

For me to London and in brackets the daily cost based on 5 days a week and 48 weeks a year

Daily: £28.80
Weekly: £108.40 (£21.68)
Monthly: £416.30 (£20.80)
Quarterly: £1,248.80 (£20.80)
Bi-annual: £2,497.60 (£20.80)
Annual: £4,336.00 (£18.07)

Evidently if you work more than 48 weeks a year the long term tickets get even cheaper.

I buy monthly because I work on contracts so cannot guarantee a year and with a bit of manipulation you can get the best return.

With some providers you get some additional benefits of an annual ticket such as free rail card or two etc so either you or a family member can get other travel at a discounted price