Rail ticket confusion

stinky_daddy

My DS2 has been accepted into a college a fair distance (for him) to travel to each day (we assume it is each day as opposed to his lessons being truncated into several (week) days as he has not received his timetable yet).

Anyway, I have looked at the guide (Cheap train tickets – find hidden fares & split tickets - MSE (moneysavingexpert.com)) and am now more confused than when I started tbh!!!

He needs to go from Fratton (FRT) to Fareham (FRE) (I think those are the station codes) and it looks like it is:

£6.20 to £9.70 return for a daily ticket

or

£30.50 for a weekly ticket

or

£117.20 for a monthly ticket (I assume it is a calendar month as opposed to 28 days from first use)

or

£1220 for an annual pass (depending on his timetable, this is the option I will probably go for) obviously this will change potentially depending on his timetable

Season Ticket for Fratton to Fareham | Trainline (thetrainline.com)

So, I just wanted to check in case I have missed anything obvious and to check with people who do this on a regular basis as I have not used a train in about 20 years what the best way forward is!!!

TIA

s_d

MSE_James

How old is he?

RobM99

Look to see if there's a railcard (discount card). There are quite a lot to choose from!

p00hsticks

RobM99 said:

Look to see if there's a railcard (discount card). There are quite a lot to choose from!

But check the conditions and restrictions to see how much a railcard could actually save on the usage required. 
 
A young persons railcard for example, has a minimum fare of £12 until after 10am on Mondays to Fridays, so not much use to the OP unless their courses start late in the day. You'd also have to buy individual daily tickets I think, which can be a pain. 

Whereas as season ticket will allow journeys at any time of day, multiple times a day  

If you decide to buy an annual ticket, it's worth exploring getting a credit card that offers a cashback bonus if you don't already have one (I used to use AMEX to buy mine when I commuted). 

Also I can't comment on if it's true for season tickets, but for one-off journeys people here usually recommend buying through the website of the appropriate train operating company rather than using Trainline, as the latter apparently charge a booking fee. 

prettyandfluffy

p00hsticks said:

Also I can't comment on if it's true for season tickets, but for one-off journeys people here usually recommend buying through the website of the appropriate train operating company rather than using Trainline, as the latter apparently charge a booking fee. 

When I used to buy my season ticket, I used to buy it at the Booking Office because knowledgeable staff knew of a route code that saved me a lot of money.  It made no difference at all to the journey, just the price.

outtatune

According to https://www.traveline.info/ there's an X4 bus operated by First. That'll take much longer, won't be quite as regular as the train, but will be a lot cheaper.

daveyjp

First tip.  Don't use Trainline.  Use a train operating company website.  It is far easier when things don't go to plan to get refunds or delay repay payments.

If he is 16 or 17 the 16/17 railcard gives 50% off all tickets.

msa1204

Also count the number of weeks your son will need to travel. An annual season break even point is 40 weeks , so May be cheaper to buy a combination of monthly and weekly tickets so your not buy a tickets when not a college 

stinky_daddy

He is 19, but on the autism spectrum, so we thought the less journey time the better for him in all honesty.

I will look into the train operating website and get hold of a 16-25 young person railcard (do people prefer the digital or paper ones)?.

In all honesty, I will probably post again, when we have his timetable and have a proposed plan in place.

Thanks all that have responded.

s_d

jon81uk

Also check with your local authority and the college if there is any subsidised travel.

When I went to college age 16-17 I got termly season tickets via the college, subsidised by the county council. This was 25 years ago though!

MilesT6060842

A couple of observations

• The operator is Southwestern railway.  Buy from their website as it will make refunds, delay repay etc. easier to process.
• SWR have a free smartcard linked to an online account which offers some additional ticket options e.g. Flexi Season (discount for 2 days per week average over a month) and Tap2Go for flexible travel (just touch in).  And you can buy tickets for your offspring online and they load onto the card when tapped at the station.  However Tap2go (PAYG from money on account) is not compatible with any discount railcards (there isn't a way to flag the possession of a railcard discount currently on rail operator ITSO standard smartcards, although there is for Oyster in London)
• Full price adult annual season ticket will entitle you to Gold Card discounts for travel in Network Southeast area (see maps on nationalrail.co.uk and at local station the area is huge).  30% discount on offpeak travel (with minimum fare on weekdays I think).  Not sure if a reduced price annual has the same benefits