Commuting part time

dzug1

wallofbeans wrote: »

but they don't do a season ticket from London to Chelmsford as apparently it's too close..?

Odd - it appears what is available is a season ticket between zones 1-6 and Chelmsford. Price Chelmsford to London rather than the other way round and you will find it

I've just read this Guardian article from a few years ago:
http://www.theguardian.com/money/2011/jan/08/how-to-cut-cost-rail-fare


I'm not sure how much of what they say still applies but the most interesting bit is this and I wanted to try and understand what they mean:

"If you work one day a week at home and can switch to off-peak travel for the other four days, you can get your annual bill down."

Does this mean I can get a season ticket that is peak travel for some days and off peak for others (ie the ones I won't be using it)?
That would make it cheaper but I don't know if I've got that right!

Thanks for all the advice!

For some reason I can't access that Guardian article but I suspect what it is saying applies to buying daily tickets (and possibly Oyster usage) rather than season tickets. That is 4 offpeak day returns will be cheaper than a weekly season ticket

wealdroam

wallofbeans wrote: »

I'm not sure how much of what they say still applies but the most interesting bit is this and I wanted to try and understand what they mean:

"If you work one day a week at home and can switch to off-peak travel for the other four days, you can get your annual bill down."

Does this mean I can get a season ticket that is peak travel for some days and off peak for others (ie the ones I won't be using it)?
That would make it cheaper but I don't know if I've got that right!

What it means is explained in the very next sentence. The full paragraph is:

If you work one day a week at home and can switch to off-peak travel for the other four days, you can get your annual bill down. Take a commuter using First Capital Connect to travel into London each day from Stevenage – 25 minutes north of London. The annual season ticket has just risen to £3,020 to a year. A user switching to the firm's off-peak carnet tickets (£6.30 single) would reduce their bill to £2,330.

wallofbeans

dzug1 wrote: »

Odd - it appears what is available is a season ticket between zones 1-6 and Chelmsford. Price Chelmsford to London rather than the other way round and you will find it

For some reason I can't access that Guardian article but I supect what it is saying applies to buying daily tickets (and possibly Oyster usage) rather than season tickets. That is 4 offpeak day returns will be cheaper than a weekly season ticket

Ah! How odd that it doesn't work the other way around. I tried London to Chelmsford on two different season ticket calculators and got nothing. You'd think they'd be cleverer...

I don't need the 1-6 bit as I'll be cycling to Liverpool Street so I hope the season tickets is also available without it...

I also think going out of London at peak times should be cheaper than going in... it is when buying single tickets so why not with a season ticket...

I'm not sure why you can't access the article.. the link on here works for me just fine and it's just something I found googling so subscription only article or anything...

Maybe the rest of the paragraph will shed some light...

"If you work one day a week at home and can switch to off-peak travel for the other four days, you can get your annual bill down. Take a commuter using First Capital Connect to travel into London each day from Stevenage – 25 minutes north of London. The annual season ticket has just risen to £3,020 to a year. A user switching to the firm's off-peak carnet tickets (£6.30 single) would reduce their bill to £2,330."

So maybe they are talking about carnet tickets? But I don't get how that connects...

Thanks for taking a look though, much appreciated!

wallofbeans

wealdroam wrote: »

What it means is explained in the very next sentence. The full paragraph is:

We posted that at the same time. Unfortunately it still doesn't make sense to me!
I'd need three peak carnet tickets a week. Are they cheaper than a standard return then? How do I find out the prices? I know I can get 10 for the price of 9 so that helps a little...

wealdroam

wallofbeans wrote: »

We posted that at the same time. Unfortunately it still doesn't make sense to me!
I'd need three peak carnet tickets a week. Are they cheaper than a standard return then? How do I find out the prices? I know I can get 10 for the price of 9 so that helps a little...

This page may help. I say may because they appear to be only available for business use.
But there is a phone number on that page... give them a ring.

wallofbeans

wealdroam wrote: »

This page may help. I say may because they appear to be only available for business use.
But there is a phone number on that page... give them a ring.

I think that's fine. I can get them through my work if needed.

They don't seem to work out a very good deal though. £21.10 for a single isn't great when I can buy an advance return for £25 or less. The only draw back of the those advance return tickets is they are for specific trains only so if I miss the train it'll cost me...

I've sent them an email asking questions so we'll see...