Trying to work out commuting costs, what am I missing?

buzzby

buzzby

buzzby

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Hi Everyone,

I have just started a new job where I will be commuting into London (Canary Wharf) from High Wycombe train station.

If I was going 5 days a week then the answer is simple a season ticket. It isn't that simple as it looks like I will only be going to the office 3 or maybe even 2 days a week. As far as i can see if this is true and taking into account holidays etc then the season ticket is a waste of money.

I had thought there might be a way to bulk buy a number of trips but that doesn't seem possible or have I missed that.

Which would put me into a daily travel card situation which is obviously the most expensive.

Annoyingly High Wycombe is not an Oyster zone so I have also been looking to see if I just get the return on the over ground and then contactless through the tube. On a normal day I will only do 2 trips which is less than the daily cap and less than the travelcard difference.

Does anyone do a similar trip and what do you all think is the best option.
 
No way to buy bulk tickets, and travelling at peak times means advanced fares are unlikely to be available.

From my previous calculations, season tickets are only beneficial if you're in the office 5 days a week (taking into account your holiday leave).

So you're pretty much stuck with paying a hefty price to use it.

I don't really know the area, but are there closer stations in London you can park at and catch the train from? Need to work out parking costs versus costs saved from the shorter train journey.
 
The cheapest method from wycombe might be to make the short drive to rickmansworth/west ruislip or hillingdon and just use contactless tube?
 
I would do High Wycombe to Marylebone as a day return and then use contactless/Oyster from Marylebone down to Canary Wharf. Looking at around £26 return to Marylebone plus whatever the fee is from Marylebone down to CW.
 
Maccy said:
I would do High Wycombe to Marylebone as a day return and then use contactless/Oyster from Marylebone down to Canary Wharf. Looking at around £26 return to Marylebone plus whatever the fee is from Marylebone down to CW.
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Would be £6.20 return from Hillingdon for example, its £6.20 parking there, plus fuel from Wycombe.

He might drive a thirsty car but its worth a look at that option imo. Tubes are nice too because they run so frequently. I guess it depends where exactly he actually lives as to whether driving down the M40 for a few junctions is easy or not.
 
That same met line runs all the way out to Amersham too which is a short country road drive from wycombe. Same price of £6.20 to zone 1.
 
41mins from Amersham right at the end of the line to baker street where youd pick up the jub line, i'd find that ok a couple of days per week

Short drive to amersham on top.

Maybe i am overly tight :p
 
(Assuming 2 days) 2 extra hours for £25, i guess thats the equation which will have a different value to everyone.

Not sure i'd do that either but i'd certainly consider it, the tube will be empty at Amersham.
 
I've been looking at places around High Wycombe, Watford etc. to move out to from zone 2 but the commuting time and costs are just death. Will wait until I find a job outside London before I move out I think.
 
Does your work provide a season ticket loan (or can you afford an annual ticket up front)? If so then the extra savings of buying an annual ticket make it very close to the same price as buying 2 to 3 dailies a week even after taking account of holidays and stuff. Plus you have the added bonus of not worrying about buying a ticket when you rock up to the station, you might do some social trips to London that won't cost you + other gold card benefits.
 
Thanks everyone. I'll cover off some of the themes. I had looked and thought about driving to a tube station to then just use contactless but the added journey time is just a non-starter plus then car parking. At High Wycombe I can walk or get dropped at the station.
I can get a season ticket loan, it is not clear if i pay this back pre or post deductions and the lack of faffing at the train station buying tickets has its appeal but from what i could see the season ticket cost is calculated at 40 weeks of 7 day travel and even at 3 days a week it looks like i could save hundreds over the year by not having it.
My other problem is that the season ticket means you have to scan the ticket at each station which is just a pain and I really don't see the ticket lasting long.
This is me having a true first world problem of wanting to use the contactless system to get through the gates, rather than faff with the ticket.

I wonder if I can buy a stack of return tickets to cover the getting to London part. Then at least I don't have the added time at the start of the day buying one.

Would be great if you could just buy a rail card that had X trips on it.
 
dl8860 said:
I've been looking at places around High Wycombe, Watford etc. to move out to from zone 2 but the commuting time and costs are just death. Will wait until I find a job outside London before I move out I think.
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Watford really isn't that bad to commute from, I used to live there and just used contactless/Oyster into Euston and then onwards down the Northern line.
 
I used to do something similar but from Reading to Canary Warf.

My costs were £128.50 a week for a weekly travelcard which included Reading <-> Paddington and then zone 1 - 6 on the tube.

to save on the car parking cost I convinced my wife to play taxi driver and therefore saved just over £100 a week not paying for car parking.

what I didn't save on was time. door to door was around 2 hours on a good day and that was getting the 6.36am train in and the 4.36 train out again. Even at those times getting a seat was difficult to say the least.
 
Robdav said:
I used to do something similar but from Reading to Canary Warf.

My costs were £128.50 a week for a weekly travelcard which included Reading <-> Paddington and then zone 1 - 6 on the tube.

to save on the car parking cost I convinced my wife to play taxi driver and therefore saved just over £100 a week not paying for car parking.

what I didn't save on was time. door to door was around 2 hours on a good day and that was getting the 6.36am train in and the 4.36 train out again. Even at those times getting a seat was difficult to say the least.
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£6,682/year :mad:
 
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