Cheap rail tickets for a student, HELP! :(

bhavcorp

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waterbaby

On my (occasional) journey into Waterloo, it is cheaper to buy a full price single in the morning and a single with a railcard in the evening, than a full price return. I don't know how season tickets work, having never had one, but wondered if it was possible to do something similar with season tickets.

Also a lot of companies provide interest free loans to finance season ticket purchases, and they take it back out of your salary over x months. Doesn't make it any cheaper but it makes it more manageable if you would have struggled to find 3k. Although £250 out of your pay packet is harsh.

Also there is nothing to be lost in writing to the train company and asking them for a discount on the season ticket as you will be travelling early and have a railcard. I know it sounds unlikely. But I wrote to GNER to ask for £30 back when I forgot my railcard and they gave it to me (albeit in vouchers), despite the literature saying that this would not happen.

Also my friend bought a year's bus pass at uni, worth £220. The bus company stated very clearly that there would be no refunds, full or partial. She got a car part way through the year, wrote to ask for a refund and received £100.

So it is always worth a try, in my book. If they say no, you're only 26p down (how embarrassing, I'm not sure what a stamp cost).

bhavcorp

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waterbaby

Certainly do not be rude! Remember you have no right to get what you are asking for.

Good luck.

ibmjamie

I would avoid a season ticket. Get a Young Persons railcard. For £20 a year it offers 1/3 off rail fares. It is valid PEAK in July and August and it could work out cheaper than a season ticket for these two months.

Special offer tickets are always popping up, and you could pay a lot less for "random" stations. I commute daily to Basingstoke from London, £14.60 day return. If I buy a ticket to the next station, Micheldever I'm eligible for a YP discount and pay £11.10.

Better still, I buy a Special offer ticket from London to Warwick which is valid peak with a YP discount and comes to £10.55 return. It is valid from London to Leamington via Basingstoke, Reading and Oxford, but I never go much further than Basingstoke. I save £570 a year.

When you renew a monthly season ticket, Southern give you a 5% discount I think. On my old London Brighton season ticket, that was a saving of about £25 a month.

The ultimate trick, yet can be time consuming, is to figure out the flaws in pricing your route. For example a Hove to London season ticket could be £300 a month, but a Hove to Gatwick season could be £100 a month , and a Gatwick London season could be £150 a month, saving £50. If you spend time playing around with prices now, you could save a considerable amount in the long term.

tonys_3

As far as I can see there are three train companies operating out of Brighton-that may be the case with Hove as well.But as all the operators websites are almost worse than useless for finding information-I will assume that you know best about Hove.

Have you tried working out the fares from all three to London?I find it hard to believe
that at least one of them if contacted direct by you,explaining your travel times,could
not come up with a better price than £3000.

You didn't say how old you were,but I think your local council negotiated cheaper
travel fares for students around 19?

Are coaches any good for you?National Express has one from Brighton for £1 into London early in the morning.