New to UK. Commuting from St Albans to London (Oxford St)

I'm moving from Toronto Canada for a position in London (oxford st) and will be living in St Albens and will need to travel each day to work what is cost of daily fares and is there any kind of monthly passes available?

Welcome to the UK and the forum!

Your first source for all rail timetables and fare information should be National Rail - nationalrail.co.uk. They have a Season Ticket calculator (link) which will allow you to see fares for Season tickets, which are available weekly, monthly, or for any period between a month and a year (annual Seasons have some extra benefits, check if your employer has a season ticket loan scheme).

From St Albans, a standard class monthly Season is £270.80 to "London Thameslink" (which means stations on the "Thameslink" route - any of those between St Pancras and Elephant & Castle or London Bridge), or £339.90 as a Travelcard, which includes all public transport in London Zones 1-6 (tube, train, bus, tram, DLR). Commuting to Oxford Street, you'll probably want the Travelcard - it's about half an hour walk from St Pancras.

Alternatively, if you are willing to restrict yourself to the stopping trains, you can buy:
St. Albans-Hendon £201.60
Zones 1-3 Travelcard £123.70
Total £325.30

Both fares are monthlies. If you purchase annuals, you can save even more.

LexyBoy said:

Welcome to the UK and the forum!

From St Albans, a standard class monthly Season is £270.80 to "London Thameslink" (which means St Pancras or Farringdon stations)

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Actually to as far as London Bridge or Elephant & Castle.

You are correct; I was thinking of the not-crossing-Farringdon rule combined with the fact that there's no London Terminals ticket on this flow. Original post edited.

Can you not buy a St Albans to Zone 1 ticket? Or if not, how about using an Oyster card for Kings Cross/St Pancras to Oxford Circus? (I don't know the answer as I don't commute, it was just a thought.

Bedpan said:

Can you not buy a St Albans to Zone 1 ticket?

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You can, but they are not available as seasons to just Zone 1, given that St Albans is beyond zone 6. The season ticket would therefore include Zones 1-6. Daily tickets to Zone 1 would be expensive unless you are only working 2 or 3 days a week.

Bedpan said:

Or if not, how about using an Oyster card for Kings Cross/St Pancras to Oxford Circus? (I don't know the answer as I don't commute, it was just a thought.

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Yes, Oyster PAYG could be used, but at £1.90 each way that adds up to a lot of money over a year. If it was done daily then a Travelcard will be cheaper.

I think if I were going to Oxford Street from St Albans, I'd be inclined not to go via St Pancras, but change from the Thameslink to the Jubilee Line at West Hampstead, and get that to Bond Street (changing at Baker Street to the Bakerloo line for Oxford Circus if necessary). As quite a few of the fast/semi-fast rush hour trains on the Thameslink do stop at West Hampstead, this would usually be quicker, I think, and could be done with a ticket including a travelcard.

W-on-Sea said:

I think if I were going to Oxford Street from St Albans, I'd be inclined not to go via St Pancras, but change from the Thameslink to the Jubilee Line at West Hampstead, and get that to Bond Street (changing at Baker Street to the Bakerloo line for Oxford Circus if necessary). As quite a few of the fast/semi-fast rush hour trains on the Thameslink do stop at West Hampstead, this would usually be quicker, I think, and could be done with a ticket including a travelcard.

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Of course this would come out at the same price as all the other options which involve Tube, as a Travelcard would still be required.

It depends where abouts he wants to go to on Oxford Street; it's quite a long street and could take some time to walk from Bond Street to say, the Tottenham Court Road end of Oxford Street. A cafe near me describes itself as being off Oxford Street yet I know if going from Kings + the best station to use is Great Portland Street.

Not to forget that it's a 200 mtr walk between the West Hampstead stations.

Welcome to the UK, and particularly to St Albans, as I live nearby! Have you got any idea where you are staying in St Albans? Just that all the above replies assume you are going from St Albans City Station on what is known as the "Midland Main Line" or 'Thameslink' for the local services. But St Albans also has a St Albans Abbey station on a branch line that takes you to Watford Junction for trains to Euston. Not as frequent a service as on the 'Thameslink' but may be more convenient if you end up near it.

Others more knowledgeable than myself on fares can tell you if that route is any cheaper than the Thameslink one.

From St Albans Abbey:

St Albans Abbey - London Terminals
Season - 1 Month
Route Any Permitted
£249.30

The ticket from St Albans Abbey is slightly cheaper however please note that the London Terminals ticket (instead of London Thameslink) is not valid for travel through Farringdon. You can use this ticket to go from St Albans Abbey to London Euston via Watford Junction, or to St Pancras International by walking to St Albans (Midland) as this is the shortest route. Alternatively:

St Albans Abbey - London Zones 1-6
Travelcard Season - 1 Month
Route Any Permitted
£334.90

I wouldn't split on this ticket as you then lose the flexibility in terms of routeing.

bb21 said:

The ticket from St Albans Abbey is slightly cheaper however please note that the London Terminals ticket (instead of London Thameslink) is not valid for travel through Farringdon. You can use this ticket to go from St Albans Abbey to London Euston via Watford Junction, or to St Pancras International by walking to St Albans (Midland) as this is the shortest route.

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I'm not convinced that it's valid to walk to another station at the start or end of a journey, and then claim that this is the shortest route. We don't have distance-based railway pricing in the UK. If this approach were allowed, then the passenger would be able to choose to pay the lowest fare from anywhere to the chosen destination for the distance travelled.

We know that a walk between stations counts as zero distance. A walk between intermediate stations during a journey is constrained by the need for both intermediate stations to be on a Permitted Route between the origin and the destination. But if bb21's approach were allowed, there would be no such constraint at the beginning or end of a journey.

So if I thought a £11.60 single Dewsbury - Stalybridge (26 miles) was expensive, I could buy a £5.90 single Bryn - Stalybridge (28 miles), "walk" Bryn - Dewsbury and use it from Dewsbury as the "shortest route"? I don't think so.

As it happens, there is a work-round here. Instead of St Albans Abbey - St Pancras, buy a Park Street - St Pancras ticket where the walk between the two St Albans stations is indeed the shortest route. But perhaps that's a little complex for simpson's plans.

John @ home said:

So if I thought a £11.60 single Dewsbury - Stalybridge (26 miles) was expensive, I could buy a £5.90 single Bryn - Stalybridge (28 miles), "walk" Bryn - Dewsbury and use it from Dewsbury as the "shortest route"? I don't think so.

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Yes I get ye. Ignore my daft post

I don't know the history of this route (I understand tickets used to be interavailable, with the more expensive being valid on both routes), but I think that bb21's plan is arguably valid.

National Rail, the "definitive source of information for all passenger rail services on the National Rail network in England, Wales and Scotland", says of a St Albans Abbey - London Terminals Season that "Travel is allowed by any route option shown by the Journey Planner where the journey can be made using only one ticket". The Journey planner does indeed only require one ticket for this journey.

However, I think that OP (a) probably wants a Travelcard anyway, and (b) probably doesn't want to argue with FCC barrier staff at St Albans every day.

LexyBoy said:

National Rail, the "definitive source of information for all passenger rail services on the National Rail network in England, Wales and Scotland", says of a St Albans Abbey - London Terminals Season that "Travel is allowed by any route option shown by the Journey Planner where the journey can be made using only one ticket". The Journey planner does indeed only require one ticket for this journey.

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Yes but I think National Rail offers the St Albans - London Thameslink Off-Peak Day Return at £10.50 rather than the St Albans Abbey - London Terminals Off-Peak Day Return (£10.10) so it's effectively ignoring the walking bit I take it.

Thanks for backing me up though.