Railcard saving London commute

rdixon555

Hi all,

I have a new job where I have to commute into London (Shepherds Bush) and also need all railcard zones - this is a monthly season ticket cost of £525.

I have looked into the 26-30 railcard and can see that it is mostly used for off-peak times, whereas I would need on peak.

Would there be a saving involved if I got a railcard, and if so what would the monthly saving and cost be?

Thanks in advance

Stompa

I suspect you'll have a better chance of an answer if you state where you are commuting from.

This may also be of interest:

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2017/11/revealed-how-the-new-26-30-railcard-can-be-used-by-commuters-to-slash-100s-off-travel-to-work/

rdixon555

Commuting from Reading (don’t know why that matters though?)

elverson

You can't use the Railcard before 1000 and you can't use it for season tickets.

If you use the route Reading - Clapham Junction- Shepherd's Bush, you can avoid Zone 1 (and get a cheaper ticket) but this route is quite slow.

coinologist

elverson wrote: »

You can't use the Railcard before 1000 and you can't use it for season tickets.

If you use the route Reading - Clapham Junction- Shepherd's Bush, you can avoid Zone 1 (and get a cheaper ticket) but this route is quite slow.

I agree with that, I commute to Central London as well but by using another station in the morning and on the way home I avoid an entire zone and it does save quite a bit of money overtime. Even if you have to leave like 10-20 minutes earlier every morning it can be very worth it in the long run.

Mr_Singleton

Be aware that there are a number of routes that don’t travel through Zone 1 but TFL does actually charge you for Zone 1 travel.

Edit: They hide it in the small print.

Mojo29

elverson wrote: »

You can't use the Railcard before 1000.

Not quite. You /can/ use a 26-30 Railcard before 10.00, but there is a Minimum fare of £12. So for a journey like Reading to London this is no problem at all as the fare is significantly more than this.

£525 is the correct fare for a Monthly Travelcard season ticket, including zones 1-6.

£456.60 is the cost of a Monthly Travelcard season ticket to include zones 2-6. This would mean you have to catch the stopping trains and change at Ealing Broadway for the Central line. Alternatively as someone else suggested you could also get South Western Rail to Clapham Jct and change for the West London line to Shepherds Bush, but I'd have thought this would take a lot longer.

The cost of daily tickets using your Railcard would cost substantially more than a season ticket.

Rather than buying Monthly season tickets, have you considered buying an Annual? Over the course of the year these work out much cheaper as you're typically only paying for 10 and a half months and if you no longer require it part way through you can refund it for a pro-rata refund (minus admin fee) or have a fee-free changeover to your new route. If you can't afford it up front, then check if your employer offers a Season ticket loan, or even consider 'Commuter Club.'

If you don't like the sound of this, then you can also buy 'odd period' Season tickets for any duration over a month. You can fit this around your annual leave or any other commitments, for example let's say you start this job tomorrow and you're next on leave from the 25th-29th of March, you could buy a 2 month and 13 day season ticket which would expire on Friday 22nd of March.

This will also work out cheaper as you aren't paying for so many days you don't need.