Season tickets in London advice please

fiona987

Hi everyone,

First post and looking for some advice about reducing my transport costs living in London please. Sorry if its already here, but I have looked and cannot get proper travel advice from First Capital connect.
I live in West Hampstead (Zone 2) and get the overground train from West Hampstead Thameslink to Farringdon for work. This saves me money rather than the tube. I normally get a monthly ticket but think I will get the annual season ticket at £676 instead.
I also use the tube and bus at the weekend and sometimes during the week with an oyster card.
I have read online and network rail cards, gold cards and am struggling to understand what these are. Could I save further money with my oyster or season ticket.
I realise people spend thousands every year and I'm v lucky to pay so little, but any advice would be very much appreciated.

Fiona

wealdroam

That £676 ticket will of course get you from West Hampstead Thameslink to Farringdon as may times as you like for a whole year.

You will not be able to use the tube or buses with that ticket.

You will get a Gold Card with it.
Rather than write it out again, it might be worth reading the National Rail Enquiries webpage about Gold Cards. It is quite readable - come back with further questions if you like.

If you want to uses any trains and tube in Zones 1 and 2, then an annual travelcard would cost £1216.
That covers buses in all the zones.

alanrowell

I found that by carefully tailoring the dates I took holidays, having season tickets expire on Fridays - but not renew until Mondays, that I could avoid the need to buy annual season tickets but could use a mixture of quarterly, monthly and weekly tickets

Altarf

fiona987 wrote: »

I have read online and network rail cards, gold cards and am struggling to understand what these are. Could I save further money with my oyster or season ticket.

Yes, although in the link previously quoted, the key point for you is if you get an annual rail season ticket you can get 1/3 off Off-Peak tube and DLR fares (but not bus) and 1/3 off the Off-Peak daily price cap.

If it is a paper ticket, take it and your Oyster card (PAYG is fine, but it must be registered to you), to a tube station and ask them to record the fact you have a gold card on the Oyster card.

The discount then automatically applies when you use the Oyster card.

You need to go back to a tube station every year when you get a new card for them to update the expiry date of the season ticket.

maniacmartin

alanrowell wrote: »

I found that by carefully tailoring the dates I took holidays, having season tickets expire on Fridays - but not renew until Mondays, that I could avoid the need to buy annual season tickets but could use a mixture of quarterly, monthly and weekly tickets

You don't just need to buy monthly, quarterly or annuals. You can get them as weekly or any period of time between one month and one year. (e.g. 1 month and 2 days)