Looking for some advice on ticketing and possible options.......
I've been offered a new job in London (currently living in Manchester) but could work from home 3 days a week and London twice a week.
My plan is
- to travel MAN to EUS on a Monday morning (pre 0700), travel to London Bridge by tube.
- in the evening travel from Liverpool St / Tottenham Hale to Stansted Airport / Mountfitchet for accommodation.
- on Tuesday morning travel from Stansted back to London Bridge
- on Tuesday evening travel from EUS to MAN
I understand the amount of travel time, but just looking for pointers on getting the correct tickets.
I've looked at advances (£88 MAN-EUS peak am / £43 EUS-MAN off peak single), singles / returns (LST-Stansted Airport) and a whole host of other tickets.
Any suggestions would be most welcome!!!
Well, it depends on what your definition of "correct" is!
That route is very poor in terms of the cost of a straight-up non-split Anytime ticket (£338 return!), and whilst the Off-Peak Return is a more reasonable £87.90 it carries very heavy restrictions, which are pretty close to the most restrictive Virgin are allowed to implement under fares regulations. So obviously at the very least on your outward journey you would need an Anytime ticket if getting a non-split walk-up ticket. You would only be able to use the corresponding Off-Peak ticket after 18:44.
However, Advances are available even on many "peak-time" services and if you are willing to fix yourself to a specific train then this may be a worthwhile option. The difficulty is just that, whilst a monthly season ticket works out as only slightly more than the cost of one Anytime Return a week (£373.70 on a weekly basis), (or an annual is equivalent to £287.46 on a weekly basis), all this is rather expensive and not really worthwhile your time if you're only making one return journey a week.
There are alternative, cheaper tickets which you could use to make your journey - and those who commute from Manchester to London are probably aware of them (and I don't intend to point them out here on the public forum!). But ultimately unless you, say, got a year's worth of these kinds of walk-up tickets, or an annual season ticket, you have the risk that you might have to pay more for travel in the future if the "anomaly" is closed.
To be honest, I don't even think the travel time would be your main concern here - 2 and a bit hours from Manchester to London (assuming you live near Piccadilly), plus the Underground, is not an impossible commute by any means when done once a week. But the cost is something that is difficult to overlook, and if you were to go for an Anytime Return a week for example you would be spending £16000 a year (assuming 4 weeks' holiday) - and at that point not only is an annual season ticket cheaper, but you are into the territory of being able to afford to live in London in a small flat for the working week and to then commute back to Manchester (at Off-Peak prices) every weekend. Obviously that may not be attractive to you depending on any family or relatives etc. you may have in Manchester but it is something I think you should seriously consider.
The travel to Stansted is also not cheap when bought as a walk-up ticket but there the differential between a walk-up ticket and a season is much greater do I don't think the season is worth considering. If anything, you'll want to get Stansted Express Advances, which I understand are a flat £10. Alternatively Advances are available for travel from stations towards to Manchester, so for example you could get one from Rugby or Milton Keynes in principal - but this is unlikely to be suitable for your travel as it falls over several days and you can't really buy an Advance with that kind of booking.
It's a difficult one and personally I would be considering whether this job is compensating me properly for the considerable inconvenience and additional cost I'd be undergoing. If they are very interested in you then they may be prepared to make a contribution towards your costs. If not it's worth thinking about where your priorities lie.
