Cheapest way to commute London to Gatwick?

iAMaLONDONER

Nick_C wrote: »

Cheapest option would seem to be Zones 1-6 to Gatwick, valid on FCC only. Weekly prices:-

FCC only - £79
Southern only - £90.40
Any permitted route (includes Gatwick Express) - £103.20

If you buy a monthly, you will save more. £303.40 on FCC, equivalent to £70 pw.

You can buy a season for any specified period of time longer than 31 days. Check http://ojp.nationalrail.co.uk/service/seasonticket/tickets for prices. If you know your working pattern more than a month in advance, you may get a further saving by buying a ticket for, for example, 40 days, taking your days off, then starting afresh.

Also, see if your employer offers an interest free season ticket loan. An annual would be cheaper still.

I would also recommend getting a Santander 123 credit card. There is a £24 annual fee, but they give 3% cash back on train tickets to a maximum of £9 per month. There is an annual fee of £24, but you would still save £7 a month compared with a card that doesn't give cash back. There is no fee in the first year if you have a 123 current account. You can get £13 cashback by applying for the card via the Top Cashback website.

Suggest you enquire with a Southern Booking Office about the price of their season with the staff discount card, as it says it doesn't give a discount on the London Travelcard element.

Edgeware to Gatwick is quite a trek. Good luck with that, and with the job.

Thanks.

I already have a S123 CC!

I will visit a Southern ticket office and make enquiries about the airport staff discount. Depending on the exact figures I might be better of with say an East Croydon- Gatwick season ticket and a Z1-5 travelcard.

It's a long distance geographically but is well served by rail links: )

iAMaLONDONER

yorkie2 wrote: »

The cheapest Travelcard from Gatwick is a Gatwick Airport to London Zones 1-6 routed "FCC Only", priced at £79 per week (also available for any period between 1 month & 1 year; an annual is £3,160)

This is valid on all operators within the Zones, but only on FCC services between the boundary of Zone 6 and Gatwick Airport.

This product cannot be loaded onto an Oyster card.

A Zones 1-5 Travelcard is £53.40 per week (also available for any period between 1 month & 1 year; an annual is £2,136), this is available on Oyster.

So this will only be cheaper if you can get a discount from your employer on the cost of an East Croydon-Gatwick Season, to bring the cost of that down to less than the difference between the above fares.

No; if you want to use Oyster, you'd have to use a combination of 'inboundary' Travelcard (available on Oyster) and another ticket that covers the rest of your journey.

This is controversial, but I personally believe that "Southern Only" means that travel is restricted to any train operated by Southern (NRCoC Condition 10 allows tickets to be restricted to particular Train Companies; Southern is a Train Company, but Gatwick Express is merely a route operated by Southern)

Southern does operate the Gatwick Express route, and this is clearly shown as a Southern route on their route map

Furthermore, the Gatwick Express website states " Gatwick Express is operated by Southern"

Gatwick Express was the name of a separate Train Company from 1997 to 2008 and is now dissolved. The route transferred to Southern in 2008, in fact Southern commissioned a video about the handover (in which they claim everything will be the same, yet nothing is the same, except possibly the coffee..).

Southern are required to retain the route branding, because the DfT did a deal with the Airport a long time ago, for a non-stop service with specific branding. But that doesn't affect ticket validity.

Some timetables incorrectly show the operator as "GX" but that is wrong, there is no such operator! The correct timetable is on the Network Rail website, table 186, which correctly shows the non-stop services as operated by "SN".

Still not convinced? Someone sent an FOI request to the DfT, which got a positive response confirming that "..Gatwick Express is operated by Southern. The Department has discussed the status of Gatwick Express with Southern who agree that there is no seperate Gatwick Expres franchise or Train Operating Company..."

Nevertheless, the holder of a 'Southern Only' ticket could occasionally expect to be inspected on board the train, and some ticket inspectors may attempt to claim that Gatwick Express is a separate Train Company and therefore, under NRCoC Condition 10 falsely claim the ticket is "not valid". Arming yourself with a copy of the Southern route map (print it in colour for clarity and explain you're simply on the red Gatwick Express route) usually ceases any demand for payment, but if not, a copy of the other documentation (in particular the FOI request) should suffice. Failing all that, pay for the supplement and request a refund from Customer Relations.

Three people that I know of travelled without any documentation and were sold a "supplement", all were subsequently refunded by Customer Relations (a Google search for Southern admit they were wrong to sell GX "supplement", will find a post by dvboy who confirms that " I have just got off the phone with Southern Customer Services who, after giving them the reference number and explaining briefly my complaint, told me they would refund me not only the supplement but the original return ticket also, totalling £18.70.")

Thanks very much! The Gatwick express would be a nice if I got a discounted Gatwick-Victoria season ticket

Nick_C

iAMaLONDONER wrote: »

Gatwick isn't in London?

No. Its in Sussex.

silverwhistle

There are some _very_ helpful posters on this site, and thanks to them indeed, but doesn't this thread also illustrate what a shucking fambles our rail network has become that it should even be necessary?

yorkie2

iAMaLONDONER wrote: »

Thanks very much! The Gatwick express would be a nice if I got a discounted Gatwick-Victoria season ticket

A Gatwick - Zones 1-6 Season would be better value for you... unless, perhaps, you can get a substantial discount on Gatwick - London only. If so, it depends on how great that discount is.

silverwhistle wrote: »

There are some _very_ helpful posters on this site, and thanks to them indeed, but doesn't this thread also illustrate what a shucking fambles our rail network has become that it should even be necessary?

Haha, yes! According to the Train Companies, ticketing is "simple" - they even made a webpage about "Simple rail fares"

The only way it is "simple" is that if you're extremely well off, you can buy the most expensive 'Anytime' fare routed 'Any Permitted' and then not have to worry (well, too much...) about complex restrictions, or how to make travel affordable.

But, for the rest of us, trying to get a good deal is very difficult.

There is a website I help run with a dedicated "Fares Advice & Policy" section (Search for it if you like), where people can get help such as this, or any other fares/booking related query. There have been 14 active queries (threads) in that section alone in the past 24 hours. The number of enquiries seems to be constantly increasing.

A friend of mine made a website (called Trainsplit) which identifies cheaper fares by "splitting"; the average saving is around £10 per journey. Some long-distance CrossCountry journeys can involve around 8 individual tickets; for a return that's 16 coupons! As fares increase, in both cost and complexity, sites like this are going to be even more in demand...

iAMaLONDONER

Nick_C wrote: »

No. Its in Sussex.

It was a rhetorical question lol!

Though one might say it's only a matter of time before Gatwick becomes part of London like Middlesex did in 1965!

Nick_C

Sorry. I'm very protective of my adopted county, but you are right, its becoming more like London every day. Time to move again ....

iAMaLONDONER

Nick_C wrote: »

Sorry. I'm very protective of my adopted county, but you are right, its becoming more like London every day. Time to move again ....

Not so much a bad thing if you're a property owner!