First time train commuter advice!

wallofbeans

Hello All,

I live in London and am starting a job in Colchester in the next few weeks. It's only part-time (between 2-3 days per week depending on the time of year) and I'm trying to figure out the best way to keep the costs down of the train commute...

Any advice?

wealdroam

wallofbeans wrote: »

Hello All,

I live in London and am starting a job in Colchester in the next few weeks. It's only part-time (between 2-3 days per week depending on the time of year) and I'm trying to figure out the best way to keep the costs down of the train commute...

Any advice?

Can you travel at off peak times?

Are you eligible for any railcard?

A Network Railcard gives you 1/3 off most rail fares for journeys after 10am(Mon-Fri) in the Network Railcard area - which London and Colchester are.

wallofbeans

Most days I will need to be there before 10am and will probably want to be travelling back at peak times too...

I looked at the network rail card and was excited about it until it mentioned the peak times restriction.. which I think makes it no use to me..?

wealdroam wrote: »

Can you travel at off peak times?

Are you eligible for any railcard?

A Network Railcard gives you 1/3 off most rail fares for journeys after 10am(Mon-Fri) in the Network Railcard area - which London and Colchester are.

wealdroam

wallofbeans wrote: »

Most days I will need to be there before 10am and will probably want to be travelling back at peak times too...

I looked at the network rail card and was excited about it until it mentioned the peak times restriction.. which I think makes it no use to me..?

As a baseline, an Anytime Day Return is £33.80.

If you can plan ahead, then maybe Advance Singles will help.

Using Tuesday 8 September as an example:

your outward journey could be done at £10.00 leaving Liverpool Street at 06:00 or 06:25. It can be done on eight trains arriving at Colchester before 09:00 for less than £15.00.
There are seven trains leaving Colchester between 5pm and 7pm where the Advance Single fare is £10.00 or less.

Remember, with Advance Singles you must travel on the booked train.

N.B. I have just looked at this coming Tuesday, and there are many trains where the outward single fare is less than £15.00 and for the return, £10.00 is easily possible. That just shows that it may not be necessary to book very far in Advance to get the bargain ticket. Worth noting that the cheapest Advance Single will never be less than £9.00 without a railcard.

wallofbeans

Yes, advance singles looked like the best option to me too. Advance meaning at least the day before?

The only drawback to that is the specific train issue, as I'm not sure I'll always be able to make a return train and will have to book times an hour or more later than I am supposed to finish work just to be sure. And lots of the time I'm sure I'll be sitting at the station watching perfectly good trains leave without me.

I wanted to try and find a way around that if possible.

Do you think it's worth getting the network railcard just for the return journeys? Will it work if I'm travelling back at peak times? And I wonder how many times I'd need to use it to make it worth while?

I read something on here about being able to get the discount with pay as you go oyster card journeys too, but I've also read that isn't true so I'm not sure about that one...

I can possibly get a 15% discount off a yearly rail card but only using it 2-3 times per week, I don't think it aves much, and certainly isn't cheap than the advance single prices. Such a shame I can't get a 3 days a week rail card!

wealdroam wrote: »

As a baseline, an Anytime Day Return is £33.80.

If you can plan ahead, then maybe Advance Singles will help.

Using Tuesday 8 September as an example:

your outward journey could be done at £10.00 leaving Liverpool Street at 06:00 or 06:25. It can be done on eight trains arriving at Colchester before 09:00 for less than £15.00.
There are seven trains leaving Colchester between 5pm and 7pm where the Advance Single fare is £10.00 or less.

Remember, with Advance Singles you must travel on the booked train.

N.B. I have just looked at this coming Tuesday, and there are many trains where the outward single fare is less than £15.00 and for the return, £10.00 is easily possible. That just shows that it may not be necessary to book very far in Advance to get the bargain ticket. Worth noting that the cheapest Advance Single will never be less than £9.00 without a railcard.

wealdroam

A Super Off Peak Day Single for your return leg is £24.30, which reduces to £16.05 with a railcard. As you save over £8 every time you buy that ticket with a railcard, it will only take you four tickets to recover the cost of the railcard (£30.00).

That £16.05 fare is not much more than an Advance Single fare and it buys you that flexibility.

Network Railcard discounts are not available on Oyster pay as you go.

Just to add:
By buying an Advance Single at £9 (the cheapest possible) and a SOP Single at £24.30 would be 50p cheaper than an Anytime Return. It would therefore be silly to consider buying a SOP Single without a railcard - in my opinion.

wallofbeans

It sounds like a good plan to get the NRC for the return journeys then...

I think a full price day return is around £33 though so only £16.50 per journey.. meaning the discount will only work out well if I always buy advance tickets for my outbound morning trains.

I assume I can't use the NRC for a day return and it take the discount from the return journey only? That would be too nice...

wealdroam wrote: »

A Super Off Peak Day Single for your return leg is £24.30, which reduces to £16.05 with a railcard. As you save over £8 every time you buy that ticket with a railcard, it will only take you four tickets to recover the cost of the railcard (£30.00).

That £16.05 fare is not much more than an Advance Single fare and it buys you that flexibility.

Network Railcard discounts are not available on Oyster pay as you go.

wealdroam

wallofbeans wrote: »

It sounds like a good plan to get the NRC for the return journeys then...

Yes.

wallofbeans wrote: »

I think a full price day return is around £33 though so only £16.50 per journey.. meaning the discount will only work out well if I always buy advance tickets for my outbound morning trains.

That's right.

wallofbeans wrote: »

I assume I can't use the NRC for a day return and it take the discount from the return journey only? That would be too nice...

Sorry... doesn't work like that.

wallofbeans

So what's the difference between peak and off peak and super off peak?

wealdroam wrote: »

Yes.


That's right.


Sorry... doesn't work like that.

wealdroam

wallofbeans wrote: »

So what's the difference between peak and off peak and super off peak?

The price and the time of day they can be used.

It is probably easiest to use a train conpany's journey planner to see which tickets are available for the time you wish to travel.

I usually use Southern's journey planner, but choose one you are happy with.

wallofbeans

The only other option is to get a season ticket with the 15% discount. I worked out that if I used it 3 days a week for 40 weeks a year then it's around £26.50 per day (if I get 3 or 6 month season tickets) but as low as £23 per day if I bought 12 months.

I'll have to have a look at that again on the basis of 2 days a week though. At the moment I don't know exactly how many days it will be but it will always be at least two and only once or twice a year more than three (if that)...

The only real advantage of that is I've got the ticket so save time having to find tickets online the week before or queue and pay for them on the day. It's just done. And if i wanted to go somewhere else on that same train line I guess I could use it at weekends etc.

It seems like the best bet is to buy cheapest outbound as far in advance as possible, do Network Rail Card for returns and then if the days and hours get very stable and I know I always get to the station by the same time then either buy loads in advance or get the season ticket.

I assume I can't share a season ticket with somebody else?