Any cheap way to commute by tube?

miklcct

I work in Zone 1 and plan to get into the office for at least 4 days per week in peak hours. I am using a National Rail season ticket at £85.70 per month which covers most of the North London Line and the Thameslink route between Finsbury Park / West Hampstead / Herne Hill, which is extremely good value as I'm using this ticket for 7 days per week including weekends, but it is not valid on the Underground.

However, I'm planning to move to Willesden Green which is only served by the tube. Paying an additional £1.90 (peak) + £1.15 (off-peak) every day, or buying a Travelcard for £156.30 per month compared to £85.70 for just short 2-stop tube journeys to connect to National Rail at West Hampstead, seems excessive.

Is there a cheaper way to use the tube to commute?

DullGreyGuy

Might be easier if you say what your journey actually is as Willesden Green is Zone 2/3 and on the Jubilee line but a short 2 stop tube journey puts you West Hampstead or Finchley Road both of which are in Zone 2 but you say you are going to Zone 1

Peak Fares are mornings and evenings so are you sure the return is an off peak?

If you are just going two stops distance then certainly check the options of walking, bus or cycling.

miklcct

My actual journey is Willesden Green - Farringdon, changing at West Hampstead. My return journey is usually in two stages, first from Farringdon to Kentish Town in the peak, then back to Willesden Green off-peak.

MilesT6060842

As all the travel is "zonal", and you are mixing train/tube, contactless pay as you go on a credit or debit card is likely to be the cheapest approach for the actual paying, rather than buying season tickets in advance. Perversely this is one of the cases where mixing bus and tube/train will be more expensive than just tube/train.

The change at West Hampstead in the morning (Overground to Thameslink) is an "out of station interchange" (West Hampstead stations are enabled for this) and will be treated as one zonal journey--you will find when you look up the journey history online using your TfL account (or if not registered, contactless.tfl.gov.uk allows you to look at last 7 days for a specific card)

As you have already indicated, the trip home will usually be two separate journeys.

The caveat to all that is if you eligible for any concessions (youth, jobless, disabled, age) then get the relevant version of the Oyster card from TfL and put money on that for PAYG. 

If you are concerned about using a payment card/phone through the gates (pickpockets etc).  then you can either

• get an Oyster card (£7 fee, nonrefundable), and register that to allow refund of credit if lost (and autotopup if liked) although contactless is cheaper in some situations than Oyster.
• or buy one of the cheaper prepayment debit cards (from £10) and use that just for travel/incidentals
• or set of a additional bank account with online mobile app like Monzo ditto
• The citymapper pass (card) isn't suitable for you (too expensive as a weekly commitment I think).

The only way to make this any cheaper needs "creative" routing to avoid Zone 1 train/tube (especially peak), and is likely to take longer.   The usual "hack" for journeys from outer zones into central is to travel by train/tube into Zone 2 as close as you can get to your destination, and then change to bus for the Zone 2-1 leg.  (If you need multiple buses then the hopper fare applies so you only pay for the first bus).  In your case, stay on the Overground (which is especially cheap for distance) to get as close to Farringdon as you can without entering Zone 1 (finding a suitable high frequency bus corridor) and then change to bus.  (There is one small part of the Overground which goes into Zone 1--avoid that--TfL did that to protect revenue into parts of the City).

Herzlos

I'm not familiar with the area, but given you're talking about 2 stops, do you have any option to walk across the zone boundary and catch a cheaper tube?

MilesT6060842

Herzlos said:

I'm not familiar with the area, but given you're talking about 2 stops, do you have any option to walk across the zone boundary and catch a cheaper tube?

Generally doesn't help to do this in London, the fare structure doesn't lend itself to this.  Likely to make the trip more expensive, not cheaper.  Fares are charged as single journeys from Zone to Zone regardless of how many trains/tubes used (and in some cases, even changes in station get merged into one journey--"OSI" Out of Station Interchange)

What does work (as I mentioned in an earlier response) is to use bus to cross the Zone 1 and Zone 2 boundary, and then use Tube or Train from Zones 2 to 3/4/5/6/7/8/9.  Especially in peak, the biggest difference in fares between peak and off peak is in Zone 1.

miklcct

MilesT6060842 said:

As all the travel is "zonal", and you are mixing train/tube, contactless pay as you go on a credit or debit card is likely to be the cheapest approach for the actual paying, rather than buying season tickets in advance. Perversely this is one of the cases where mixing bus and tube/train will be more expensive than just tube/train.

The change at West Hampstead in the morning (Overground to Thameslink) is an "out of station interchange" (West Hampstead stations are enabled for this) and will be treated as one zonal journey--you will find when you look up the journey history online using your TfL account (or if not registered, contactless.tfl.gov.uk allows you to look at last 7 days for a specific card)

As you have already indicated, the trip home will usually be two separate journeys.

The caveat to all that is if you eligible for any concessions (youth, jobless, disabled, age) then get the relevant version of the Oyster card from TfL and put money on that for PAYG. 

If you are concerned about using a payment card/phone through the gates (pickpockets etc).  then you can either

• get an Oyster card (£7 fee, nonrefundable), and register that to allow refund of credit if lost (and autotopup if liked) although contactless is cheaper in some situations than Oyster.
• or buy one of the cheaper prepayment debit cards (from £10) and use that just for travel/incidentals
• or set of a additional bank account with online mobile app like Monzo ditto
• The citymapper pass (card) isn't suitable for you (too expensive as a weekly commitment I think).

The only way to make this any cheaper needs "creative" routing to avoid Zone 1 train/tube (especially peak), and is likely to take longer.   The usual "hack" for journeys from outer zones into central is to travel by train/tube into Zone 2 as close as you can get to your destination, and then change to bus for the Zone 2-1 leg.  (If you need multiple buses then the hopper fare applies so you only pay for the first bus).  In your case, stay on the Overground (which is especially cheap for distance) to get as close to Farringdon as you can without entering Zone 1 (finding a suitable high frequency bus corridor) and then change to bus.  (There is one small part of the Overground which goes into Zone 1--avoid that--TfL did that to protect revenue into parts of the City).

I have already bought the appropriate railcard and added it into my Oyster cards. Unfortunately given the central location of Farringdon not particular close to the zone 1/2 boundary, bussing to the boundary in order to avoid zone 1 isn't a practical option for the commute at all.

MilesT6060842

miklcct said:

I have already bought the appropriate railcard and added it into my Oyster cards. Unfortunately given the central location of Farringdon not particular close to the zone 1/2 boundary, bussing to the boundary in order to avoid zone 1 isn't a practical option for the commute at all.

Them's the breaks. Up to you whether you value your time or your money more highly.

Best I can think of for cost is Overground West Hampstead to High & I, change to Overground to Hoxton (the last Overground station in Zone 2 on that line) and then take a bus down the Old Street bus corridor (single seat 55/224 is what google maps suggests, about 30 mins). 

Or a Santander bike to/from Hoxton (£20 per month for unlimited rides of up to 1 hour, or annual pass for £120, app based or buy a "keyfob" for one off charge of £3 ), there is a dock near Hoxton Station and likely to be docks near to where you want to be in Farrindon

Gavinalt

miklcct said:

I work in Zone 1 and plan to get into the office for at least 4 days per week in peak hours. I am using a National Rail season ticket at £85.70 per month which covers most of the North London Line and the Thameslink route between Finsbury Park / West Hampstead / Herne Hill, which is extremely good value as I'm using this ticket for 7 days per week including weekends, but it is not valid on the Underground.

However, I'm planning to move to Willesden Green which is only served by the tube. Paying an additional £1.90 (peak) + £1.15 (off-peak) every day, or buying a Travelcard for £156.30 per month compared to £85.70 for just short 2-stop tube journeys to connect to National Rail at West Hampstead, seems excessive.

Is there a cheaper way to use the tube to commute?

If you're planning to commute from Willesden Green to Zone 1 using the tube, you might be surprised by the higher fares compared to your current National Rail season ticket. But no worries, there are some sneaky tricks to save your hard-earned cash. Look into grabbing a contactless or Oyster card with daily fare capping, so you won't drain your wallet with every tube journey. Another move is to see if a discounted season ticket extension for your tube travel is up for grabs.