Not exactly, I asked what the point of them was, giving one example of how poor value they can be, and I think bringing up the lack of savings with a 12 month ticket vs buying monthly tickets does brings into question what the point of that particular type of ticket is.
What's the point of rail season tickets?
- Thread starter Energize
- Start date
Not exactly, I asked what the point of them was, giving one example of how poor value they can be, and I think bringing up the lack of savings with a 12 month ticket vs buying monthly tickets does brings into question what the point of that particular type of ticket is.
Soldato
- Joined
- 10 Oct 2005
- Posts
- 8,706
- Location
- Nottingham
I do have a saving with mine but it is mostly for convenience ... But mine is a bit different as it's a yearly travel card rather than a point to point season ticket and is valid for buses, trams and local trains ... So unless I go away I can still use it on days off too and don't have to think about it if I need to jump on a bus somewhere else in the city.
Throw in a season ticket loan from work (interest free) which is automatically deducted monthly from my pay everything is a lot easier
When I used to do a rail only commute elsewhere in the country the monthly pass was a reasonable saving and was a lot more convenient to use that getting daily tickets.
Throw in a season ticket loan from work (interest free) which is automatically deducted monthly from my pay everything is a lot easier
When I used to do a rail only commute elsewhere in the country the monthly pass was a reasonable saving and was a lot more convenient to use that getting daily tickets.
Soldato
- Joined
- 9 Nov 2005
- Posts
- 9,497
- Location
- Southampton, hopefully not too hot, or too cold
Buy a nice disc brake bike in the EOL sales and do a "TT cycle ride" each way, saving money overall during the second year of use of the bike, even allowing for consumables (chains, cassettes, tyres)?
I only have to commute 3 days a week for my annual gold card to break even (GWR), and then I get other benefits like not having to queue in the mornings (my station always has a bad queue) and also cheaper rail fares to other locations and for people travelling with me. Something doesn't sound right here.
Associate
- Joined
- 1 Jul 2009
- Posts
- 728
- Location
- Shropshire/Paris
Amateurs.
You don’t actually have to pay for the ticket. Take out a 0% credit card, buy the ticket and pay it off at the end of the year.
If you lose your ticket it can be replaced. Keep the receipt safe at home and you will also be a on a database. If you don’t need the ticket anymore they will refund you the remainder of the year.
One ticket purchase at the start of the year and away you go. Never need to think about tickets again.
Yep, I think I usually get through about 5 tickets a year - headphones kept demagnetising them and then when I solved that with a better wallet the writing wears off after a few months anyway. Have only lost a couple but it was easy to get a replacement and they refunded the tickets I bought separately in the meantime.
I'm on Crossrail route so hopefully will have a better card soon, if we get Oyster then I'll probably use that.
I'm on Crossrail route so hopefully will have a better card soon, if we get Oyster then I'll probably use that.
My annual ticket now cost £4996, a single journey is £31 per day. I calculated with 1 day working from home a week and 30 days holiday (171 working days) I would still be better off with the annual ticket as you only pay for 10 months compared to buying a return journey every day. Buying a ticket when I need it would cost £5301 so over £300 more.
No thank you. I remember British Rail very well, unlike most people who throw comments out like this. The amount of days I was late for college in the 90s was ridiculous. I remember moving back to the UK from Germany in 2004 and thinking how much the rail system had improved since I last used it. Now with GWR I have this year brand new trains, lots of legroom, aircon and a much better service. Of course there are bad franchises like Southern, but with British Rail it was everything that was bad. My only delays now are caused by signal or track issues. Remind me who owns Network Rail again? Oh yeah, we do.
Permabanned
- Joined
- 13 Apr 2017
- Posts
- 969
- Location
- scotland
Sad that the OP can't afford a car, on minimum wage I shouldn't wonder.
Frankly the idea of travelling on public transport fills me with horror, rubbing extremities with tattooed members of the great unwashed and
whiffy Jeremy Kyle rejects.
Frankly the idea of travelling on public transport fills me with horror, rubbing extremities with tattooed members of the great unwashed and
whiffy Jeremy Kyle rejects.
Poor attempt at trolling 1/10.
Car journey takes twice as long and costs more.
I would rather use the 0% credit for better value things though.
It just seems that an annual ticket isn't worth the hassle for a 3% discount.
I would expect at least a 20% discount for an annual subscription to any service.
Last edited:
![[TW]Fox](/data/man-of-honor/2009.png){kind=avatar}
And this is why - the Anytime Return route Any Permitted, which is equivalent in validity to the season, is £8.90 and therefore the season ticket does offer a saving.
During a typical peak morning hour, there are 5 services from Preston to Lancaster. The Any Permitted ticket allows use of all of these whereas the cheaper TPE only Anytime Return is valid on only 2 of them.
Whether you care or not is a different matter but it's clear the Season product is more flexible than the restricted ticket you've chosen to compare it with. If you genuinely are happy to use only one operator then, yes, its cheaper to buy tickets than it is to buy an any operator season ticket.
This is quite a thread revival but my new employer offers a 0% loan for a 1 year season ticket which I was seriously considering, however I then actually found out you don't get a proper refund if you don't need the ticket anymore, they give you a refund minus the price of a full return fare for every day you'd had the ticket, so in my case if I changed job after 9 months I would be down £400 which is far more than the savings of a season ticket, that's a pretty raw deal!
http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/times_fares/ticket_types/46571.aspx#Refund