Coronavirus, Work-From-Home (wfh) and Rail Annual Season Tickets

gball

I am trying to work out the maths here, but perhaps someone has done it already!   I have an annual travelcard, which happens to be about £6000 (Reading-Paddington+Z6)  I know travelcards include a certain number of weeks to cover for holidays, I believe it's 4 weeks.   However, I was recently asked to work from home for the indefinite future - so at least 2 weeks, but who knows?  
I was wondering if taking the hit on getting a travelcard refund ever works out cheaper than simply waving goodbye to those weeks.    There must be some cutoff, but aside from the 4 week boundary, there is also the twist that the cost goes up each year, so if I renew in May then I am renewing at a higher price (versus waiting till September when it officially runs out)
This must be the same formula irrespective of the base value of the ticket - so have any clever travellers worked out the cut-over point?

pinnks

The annual ticket is based on the price of 40 weekly tickets and there is a formula to work out how much you would get if you cashed it in (GWR customer services will be able to tell you and I sort of recall a refund link on your online account with them - I used to commute along that line too).  However, given that you are talking only of 2 weeks (to start with) and you are half way through the year my guess would be that it is not worth cashing in.

bob81

I have a similar question to gball.  I travel on Southwestern Railway and have an annual ticket I purchased back in September.  I am now working from home for the foreseeable future.  I have an underlying health condition so will likely be doing this for the next 12 weeks based upon the announcement yesterday.  Does anyone know how to calculate the SWR refund for unused season tickets, especially with the strike action refund due from December?  I have read on their website they work out the total cost of tickets that would've been purchased to make one return journey per day, and any refund will be the difference minus an admin fee.  Will the total cost of tickets required be calculated by basing it on 464 single journeys like they do for delay repay, or will they use a standard day return ticket cost?
Any help gratefully appreciated.

Edit: I should also ask, will getting a refund now invalidate the 5 days compensation for strike action I am due to be contacted about?

p00hsticks

bob81 said:

 Will the total cost of tickets required be calculated by basing it on 464 single journeys like they do for delay repay, or will they use a standard day return ticket cost?
Any help gratefully appreciated.

No, I don't think it's done on daily fares - either singles or returns.

My belief is that they'll use the season ticket calculator to work out how much a season ticket would have cost from the day you purchased yours to the day you request a refund, and the refund will then be the difference between this value and the amount you paid.

http://ojp.nationalrail.co.uk/service/seasonticket/search

rdr

Given the situation we are holding off for a couple of days to see if any special arrangements are made, worth a small risk to see if we can avoid having to buy a replacement at the higher rate.

rdr

I seem to remember previous discussions where some people got more money back by changing their ticket to a really cheap route than by cancelling it completely. I think Portsmouth to Portsmouth harbour was a favourite.

rdr

rdr said:

I seem to remember previous discussions where some people got more money back by changing their ticket to a really cheap route than by cancelling it completely. I think Portsmouth to Portsmouth harbour was a favourite.

Quick look and a little local knowledge, the cheapest season ticket I can find is £372pa for very short trips in Greater Manchester - Altrincham/Hale, Altrincham/Navigation Road and Oxford Road/Deansgate

rdwarr

rdr said:

rdr said:

I seem to remember previous discussions where some people got more money back by changing their ticket to a really cheap route than by cancelling it completely. I think Portsmouth to Portsmouth harbour was a favourite.

Quick look and a little local knowledge, the cheapest season ticket I can find is £372pa for very short trips in Greater Manchester - Altrincham/Hale, Altrincham/Navigation Road and Oxford Road/Deansgate

There's a "three day week" one from Exeter Central to Exeter St Davids for £152pa.

rdr

rdwarr said:

rdr said:

rdr said:

I seem to remember previous discussions where some people got more money back by changing their ticket to a really cheap route than by cancelling it completely. I think Portsmouth to Portsmouth harbour was a favourite.

Quick look and a little local knowledge, the cheapest season ticket I can find is £372pa for very short trips in Greater Manchester - Altrincham/Hale, Altrincham/Navigation Road and Oxford Road/Deansgate

There's a "three day week" one from Exeter Central to Exeter St Davids for £152pa.

That's cheap enough to be better than cancelling for quite alot of people.

rdr

rdwarr said:

rdr said:

rdr said:

I seem to remember previous discussions where some people got more money back by changing their ticket to a really cheap route than by cancelling it completely. I think Portsmouth to Portsmouth harbour was a favourite.

Quick look and a little local knowledge, the cheapest season ticket I can find is £372pa for very short trips in Greater Manchester - Altrincham/Hale, Altrincham/Navigation Road and Oxford Road/Deansgate

There's a "three day week" one from Exeter Central to Exeter St Davids for £152pa.

My daughter has an annual ticket ending in December, any idea if she could change it back in, say, september?

rdr

more here: https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/season-ticket-refund.202186/page-1