Cheapest travel in London, season ticket or oyster?

greensalad

I'm trying to work out the cheapest way to commute from Woking (Surrey) to Zone 1.

I can't seem to find out if a season ticket is available for WOK - Zone 1&2, the website only presents me with Zone 1-6 season tickets for about £364.

Is it cheaper to get a terminal season ticket for just WOK-WAT (£293) and then use Oyster for travel inside Zone 1? (£4.60 for the two journeys).

Or is a WOK - London Zone 1&2 available as my friends seem to think?

Any advice appreciated!

Cornucopia

I don't know about that particular route, but the maths says that Oyster + Waterloo Season is more than Woking - Zone 1-6.

Where in Zone 1 are you traveling to? A single bus journey on Oyster is cheaper than the Tube.

cosmojohnson

Woking-1&2 isn't possible as you have to go through zones 6 through 1 to reach Waterloo.

Assuming 20 working days a month, Woking-London Terminals + Oyster PAYG would be £293+£92 = £385, so the Woking-1-6 option is cheaper.

An annual ticket works out cheaper still as you get 52 weeks of travel for the price of 40.

Woking-London is one of the most popular commuter routes in the country so don't expect any sneaky loopholes or split ticket options I'm afraid,

greensalad

Thanks for your advice guys, I thought as much! It's Old Street, so I think it's 2 busses rather than just the one, so probably cheaper for the full 1-6 travelcard. I guess that means i can go anywhere after work as well.

Cornucopia

If you go Woking-Waterloo-London Bridge by Train on a point-to-point season ticket, and then London Bridge-Old Street by Bus on Oyster (which is doable, and there are frequent buses on routes 21 and 43) then it may be slightly cheaper, and possibly wouldn't take that much longer than by Tube.

edit: the above would work out at £293+£60 = £353 for 20 days per month, so probably not worth it.

If you were prepared to put more effort in, you could possibly go Woking-Waterloo-London Bridge-Farringdon-Moorgate by Rail and walk from there. Unfortunately, the Season Ticket calculator won't give a price for this, but it gives £300pm for Woking-Farringdon, so it may be worth enquiring, especially if your destination is within walking distance of Farringdon or Moorgate.

This journey does have some anomalies in it for season ticket prices, so you may have to find a decent enquiry centre and be persistent. e.g. London Bridge to Moorgate is £123.30, but London Bridge to Essex Road (one stop further) is only £68.40.

Quentin

Now they take credit cards on the tubes and buses (and include daily/weekly capping) they look better value than oyster cards if you get any rewards using your bank card (and you don't have to top up!)


(No good if you get any railcard etc type discount with your oyster though - they don't give that type of discount with a credit card)

yorkie2

Cornucopia wrote: »

If you were prepared to put more effort in, you could possibly go Woking-Waterloo-London Bridge-Farringdon-Moorgate by Rail and walk from there. Unfortunately, the Season Ticket calculator won't give a price for this...

If, by "rail" you mean Govia Thameslink Railway and not London Underground, the Farringdon-Moorgate route was discontinued several years ago to allow platform extension at Farringdon. Farringdon-Moorgate is now only possible by London Underground.

Cornucopia wrote: »

This journey does have some anomalies in it for season ticket prices, so you may have to find a decent enquiry centre and be persistent. e.g. London Bridge to Moorgate is £123.30, but London Bridge to Essex Road (one stop further) is only £68.40.

What fares are you quoting exactly and where did you find them? I think there is some confusion...

Cornucopia

yorkie2 wrote: »

If, by "rail" you mean Govia Thameslink Railway and not London Underground, the Farringdon-Moorgate route was discontinued several years ago to allow platform extension at Farringdon. Farringdon-Moorgate is now only possible by London Underground.

Ah, okay - not been up to that there London for a while. Are overground tickets valid?

What fares are you quoting exactly and where did you find them? I think there is some confusion...

Confusion only because it is officially confusing. The fares are from the National Rail Season Ticket calculator. I only quoted the London Bridge fares as an example of it not coping well with season ticket prices in that area of the network. I'm not suggesting that the OP should buy those tickets.

If Farringdon-Moorgate is closed, I wonder what the prescribed routing is for the London Bridge - Essex Road rail-only ticket?

I presume there are some rules in action behind the scenes, but some of the fares are a bit strange...

Wimbledon - Shoreditch High Street £3.30 on Oyster
Wimbledon - Old Street £6.50 on Oyster
Wimbledon - Moorgate £4.90 on Oyster

(All of these stations are within 10-15 mins walk of each other).

yorkie2

Cornucopia wrote: »

Ah, okay - not been up to that there London for a while. Are overground tickets valid?

I'm not sure what an overground ticket is.

London Overground is the name of a Train Company operating trains on various routes around London, but any fares set by them are valid interchangeably on any operator on the relevant routes.

Cornucopia wrote: »

Confusion only because it is officially confusing. The fares are from the National Rail Season Ticket calculator. I only quoted the London Bridge fares as an example of it not coping well with season ticket prices in that area of the network. I'm not suggesting that the OP should buy those tickets.

Are the fares you're quoting monthly prices? I think that some of the fares you are looking at are Travelcard fares, which may be shown when there is no point-to-point ticket between the named stations.

Cornucopia wrote: »

If Farringdon-Moorgate is closed, I wonder what the prescribed routing is for the London Bridge - Essex Road rail-only ticket?

This fare http://www.brfares.com/#faredetail?orig=LBG&dest=EXR&rte=208&tkt=7DS? If brought to the attention of the Train Companies it may be withdrawn. It was clearly intended to be used changing at Farringdon, but would now be permitted changing at St Pancras/King's Cross and again at Finsbury Park.

Cornucopia wrote: »

I presume there are some rules in action behind the scenes, but some of the fares are a bit strange...

Wimbledon - Shoreditch High Street £3.30 on Oyster
Wimbledon - Old Street £6.50 on Oyster
Wimbledon - Moorgate £4.90 on Oyster

(All of these stations are within 10-15 mins walk of each other).

£3.30 is the peak time fare to any of the above if you do not pass through any gatelines.
£4.90 is the peak time fare if you take SWT into Waterloo and take London Underground from there. This charges the dreaded mixed mode including Zone 1 "tax".
£6.50 is not shown by the single fare finder so I have no idea how that was charged. Do you have a copy of your journey history? If so I suggest you ask on either Railforums or Oyster & National Rail website (the latter site is run by MikeWh of Railforums who will be able to look into the exact issue and identify the reason you were charged so much).

giraffe69

Ah, okay - not been up to that there London for a while. Are overground tickets valid?

Apparently that doesn't stop the veneer of expertise!

The_Groat_Counter

Cornucopia wrote: »

Ah, okay - not been up to that there London for a while. Are overground tickets valid?

There was a transitional period when National Rail tickets to Moorgate were valid for travel on the Underground (from Farrington to Moorgate), but that's over, not least because there shouldn't be any National Rail season tickets to Moorgate still alive as it's no longer an NR destination.