Advice - Slough to Central London

[Abs_Slough]

Hi all,

I am joining UCL next week and will be commuting on the train from Slough. I am confused on what the best option for me is. Normally, when I go into London I buy a travelcard for zones 1-6 and this works well. Do I buy a monthly travelcard now?

If not, what’s the cheapest option for me?

UCL is in Euston Square, so I’d go from Slough-Paddington-Euston Sq.

Thanks!

 

[vinnym70]

Depends. How often in a month will you be making the journey and at what time of day will you be leaving Slough?
If you're doing it pretty much every day of the month (Mon-Fri) in peak hours then a monthly season will probably be cheapest.
If you're doing the journey less frequently OR you can travel outside of peak hours then you might have better options.

 

[Abs_Slough]

Hi Vinnym,

I will be doing it 3-4 times a week.

On 2 of those days I will have to be there for 9am (but returning before 3pm), and the other two I will need to be there in the afternoon but leave Euston around 5-6pm.

Thanks!

 

[vinnym70]

Then I suspect a monthly travelcard is your best bet - but the devil is in the detail in terms of how often you'll really be heading into London.

The travelcard removes any time-based restrictions so offers better flexibility.

You'll find a season ticket calculator here: http://ojp.nationalrail.co.uk/service/seasonticket/search
You can just enter Slough to Paddington and the subsequent page will show you the basic monthly between the two points plus the travelcard option.

A monthly return to Paddington only is £260 whereas a monthly travelcard is £343.

I think only you can decide which option makes most sense.

If you think you'll be travelling elsewhere in London beyond your normal commute the travelcard option is likely to be a no-brainer and especially if you might be heading to town at weekends as well at times.

In contrast, a daily anytime travelcard is £23.80 so you'd need to make about 15 peak-time journeys a month to make the monthly ticket beneficial. An off-peak daily travelcard is £15.20 but the first departure from Slough would then be 09:16 based on the National Rail website again.

Might well be worth to suck it and see for a month or two. I'd suspect you'll end up in London a bit more than you might think once you add on the inevitable socialising etc

 

[Joe Paxton]

If you get an 18+ Student Oyster photocard you can save 30% on a season (weekly or longer) inboundary Travelcard - e.g. a weekly, monthly or longer zones 1&2 Travelcard (price table here).

Note that this doesn't apply to any outboundary Travelcards, i.e. you cannot get a 30% discount on a season Travelcard from Slough - you'd need to buy a straightforward Slough-London season ticket and the student discounted Travelcard seperately.

The other way of saving money is to get a 16-25 Railcard and load that (i.e. associate it with) an Oyster card - this would provide for a third-off saving on Tube fares for journeys that start in the off-peak period (the Oyster peak period being 0630-0930 and 1600-1900 weekdays).

The calculus really depends on your travel patterns. I suspect either an outboundary Travelcard from Slough, or a season ticket to London plus student discounted Travelcard would be best whilst you find your feet at least. I haven't worked out which option would be cheaper. Plus of course, the student discounted Travelcard is only an option once you've got the Student Oyster photocard, and I'm pretty sure you need to get enrolled on your course before you can apply for one.

Another option would be to cycle, walk or take a bus from Paddington to UCL... e.g. using TfL's cycle hire bikes.

 

[Hadders]

I recommend the OP purchases a 16-25 Railcard (also available to mature students).

A Railcard discounted Slough - London Zones 1-6 Anytime Day Travelcard is £18.70 (a minimum fare applies to Anytime travelcards in the morning Peak). The Off Peak variant is £10.05 (although note that although this is valid to depart Slough after 09:10 the Railcard has a £12 minimum fare before 10:00.

A Railcard discounted Slough - London Paddington Anytime Day Return is £12 (due to minimum fare) or £6.95 Off Peak (although this falls foul of the minimum fare before 10:00 so if travelling between 09:10 and 09:59 buy the undiscounted version).

Add the Railcard discount to an Oyster Card and you will get 34% discount on Off Peak fares making the fare between Paddington and Euston Square either £2.40 or £1.60 depending on the time you tap in.

Thinking about it further a Railcard discounted Anytime Day Return from Slough to Zone U12 London is £15.25. This ticket allows a return journey from Slough to Paddington and one journey on the Underground (it is not a Travelcard). If travelling at peak times it undercuts the combination of a return to Paddington and Oyster PAYG.

A Travelcard season from Slough to London Zones 1-6 is £89.30 and to Paddington only is £67.80. The monthly prices are £343 and £260.40.

Buying Railcard discounted daily tickets seems to be the cheapest, unless the OP will be making additional leisure journeys at weekends etc.

If you do decide to opt for a monthly season then you can buy an ‘odd period’ season for any combination of months and days at the pro-rata monthly price. This means you can time your season ticket to finish before holidays etc.

 

[Abs_Slough]

Thanks so much for all your replies! I think I need to sit down and work all these options out, there seems to be no shortage of them!

 

[Joe Paxton]

I think Hadders' advice (in post #6) is the best, in terms of being the most economical, assuiming your travel patterns match your expectations (as detailed in post #3).

I'd say the key fares to pick out from that - all with a 16-25 Railcard discount - are the £15.25 Anytime Day Return from Slough to Zone U12 (providing for a single Tube journey either way between Paddington and central London) for the morning peak journeys, and the £10.05 Off-Peak Day Travelcard for the other journeys.

Note that whilst Hadders has mentioned the Anytime Day Return from Slough to Zone U12 (which allows one journey each way to a Tube station in zones 1 or 2), if asking for a ticket to a zone 1 London Underground station you might well just be sold a ticket to Zone U1 - it doesn't matter as this is actually the same price (£15.25).


One other thing - if you were interested in the TfL ('Santander') Cycle hire scheme, as a student you can get a year's membership for £67.50 (a 25% discount on the normal £90 price). Any rides lasting under 30 minutes won't incur a charge.

 

[kieron]

I'd say the key fares to pick out from that - all with a 16-25 Railcard discount - are the £15.25 Anytime Day Return from Slough to Zone U12 (providing for a single Tube journey either way between Paddington and central London) for the morning peak journeys, and the £10.05 Off-Peak Day Travelcard for the other journeys.

Rather than Zone U12, I'd buy a £12.80 day return to somewhere like South Hampstead. That also includes a Tube journey on the line of the route. Paddington-Euston Square isn't the most direct route to use for this, but I think it still counts as being reasonable. The ticket allows you to miss out the Euston-South Hampstead section, so the destination printed on the ticket isn't so important.

As the Student Oyster site says it's only available for people who live in London, I think a travelcard season would only become cost-effective if Abs_Slough travelled into London more than 5 times a week.

 

[Joe Paxton]

Rather than Zone U12, I'd buy a £12.80 day return to somewhere like South Hampstead. That also includes a Tube journey on the line of the route. Paddington-Euston Square isn't the most direct route to use for this, but I think it still counts as being reasonable. The ticket allows you to miss out the Euston-South Hampstead section, so the destination printed on the ticket isn't so important.

Yes, very good point!

(I'd say South Hampstead via Euston is reasonable enough, especially for someone who dislikes the deep-level tube... besides, apart from going via the Bakerloo and changing at Queens Park, how else is someone with a Slough to South Hampstead ticket supposed to actually make the journey if not via Euston - and by extension Euston Square...?)

As the Student Oyster site says it's only available for people who live in London, I think a travelcard season would only become cost-effective if Abs_Slough travelled into London more than 5 times a week.

Apologies, yes - for some reason I'd thought the 18+ Student Oyster photocard was basically open to any full-time HE student attending an establishment in London, but you're quite right it's only available to those who live in one of the London boroughs during term time.