Commuting to London Question - Please help!

kittycat31uk

Hi all,


I could really do with your help if possible!


My boyfriend has just got a 3 month contract with a company in London & will be commuting daily from Nuneaton to be at London Euston before 9:15 am 6 days a week & coming back around 7pm. Because of the times I know he will have to take Virgin Trains which bumps the price of a season ticket up massively!



Firstly, I’m not sure whether to buy a yearly season ticket in case his contract is extended (as this would be cheaper) & then ask for a refund if it isn’t (as I’m not sure how refunds are calculated) or whether to play it safe & just buy a ticket for the period of the contract.



Currently we’re looking at having to pay a whopping £8552 for a yearly ticket or £2217 to cover the period of his contract (20/10-09/01) – this just seems ridiculous!!


There is a season ticket option that’s cheaper but it specifies “trains passing through Northampton” – by “passing through” does it mean “stopping at” or can you literally just whizz by? And if that’s the case how do you find out if it whizzes by Northampton??


I’m so sorry for the long explanation!!

Armorica

There are some experts around who can explain season ticket refunds etc.

(I'm ever so slightly jealous that the journey time seems as low as an hour for some services, which is 13 mins longer than mine for 3x the distance but 2x the price)

East Midlands from Leicester to St Pancras is 1 hr 30 mins for pretty much all services. Just under 820 a month. £8540 for the year - meh tiny savings.

market harborough 713.90 / 7436
kettering 616.40 / 6420 petrol and time may make both of those pretty undesirable

From that distance, many consider living in London during the week...renting a room or advance booking hotels. Is it the kind of job where he has to be in London every day?

dzug1

All trains via Northampton stop there - nearly all of them are London Midland


The 'main' line bypasses Northampton some miles to the west.


Edit - the only Virgin train to call at Northampton is too early for you to connect from Nuneaton

yorkie2

kittycat31uk wrote: »

There is a season ticket option that’s cheaper but it specifies “trains passing through Northampton” – by “passing through” does it mean “stopping at” or can you literally just whizz by? And if that’s the case how do you find out if it whizzes by Northampton??

Such a restriction means passing through the station, no requirement to call.

But good luck finding a train non-stop through Northampton, and if you do, you won't be whizzing by, more crawling along!

You can find out which trains go via Northampton by specifying 'via Northampton' in the National Rail journey planner.

Under normal circumstances, there will be no trains passing non-stop through Northampton (except for a very small number, very late at night).