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Best monthy fare - Luton to Baker Street

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zeddie

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9 Jul 2012
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Hi all,

My first post here so hopefully im in the correct section. Hoping you guys can help me out. I have recently secured a job at a head office in Baker St london, and I live in Luton. I start early august. Just went to buy a season from Luton station and was told its £430! The best route they gave me was Luton to Farringdon and then take the underground from there to baker street. Its pretty convenient but also very expensive!

Not expecting any miracles here but is there any other cheaper way i can do this? A friend suggested take a train from Luton to West Hampstead Thames link (monthly season ticket for that route) then take the underground from there to baker street using oyster. I caclulated this and only works out to around £20 cheaper with a longer journey time.

Any suggestions would be most welcome.

thanks

Zed
 
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zeddie

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Wow Causton, quite a good suggestion there. £280 for a 4 week ticket with them which is excellent! However trying to find a timetable for them is proving to be a pain on their site. I live fairly close to their stop in luton too so this would be good. I do worry about getting stuck in traffic etc, specially since i cant afford to be late for a new job. I also live very close to luton train station. Why are trains so expensive!?!

I need to get into work for 9am, and finish at 5.30pm. Ill try find a timetable for 757 greenline, but in the mean time if anyone else has any other suggestions using trains do let me know.

thanks

Zed
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
found it in case anyone else is interested:

http://www.greenline.co.uk/uploadedfiles/Services/South_East/SELN757_060512_060312.pdf

quite an early start to get there for 9am :roll::D
 

bb21

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You do realise that the £430.50 ticket is a Luton - London Zones 1-6 Monthly Travelcard and allows you unlimited travel within London Zones 1-6, don't you?

I can't see any obvious money saving techniques, however depending on where your office is at Baker Street, a Luton - London Zones 2-6 Monthly Travelcard might be suitable. This is priced at £379.40 for one month and allows you unlimited travel within London Zones 2-6. Also included is unlimited travel on London Buses within Zone 1. It might add 15-20 minutes to your commute each way.

This ticket would allow you to alight at West Hampstead Thameslink station and carry on your journey using the Jubilee Line as far as St John's Wood. You can then either get a bus (Routes 13, 82 or 113) for the last section, or on days when you are running a little late, use Oyster PAYG for West Hampstead - Baker Street on London Underground. The fare would be £2.70 (peak) / £2 (off-peak).
 

MikeWh

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Welcome to the forum, Zed.

I have some options, but it would be good to know if there are any alternative Underground destinations that might be acceptable. In particular, would St John's Wood be any good, perhaps with a slightly longer walk or a bus ride? Anyway, I'm going to talk in weekly terms but the ratios stay the same.

Luton to London zones 1-6: £112.10 (this is what you were quoted)

Luton to West Hampstead: £77.40
10x Oyster z1-2 singles: £27.00
Total for 2nd Option: £104.40

Luton to Hendon: £63.00
Z1-3 Travelcard: £34.20
Total for 3rd Option: £97.20

Luton to Hendon: £63.00
Z2-3 Travelcard: £22.00
Total for 4th Option: £85.00

Right, now the small print. Hendon is dual zoned (3 and 4) so you don't end up paying for for any section twice. The downside is that you need to get a stopping train which takes about 10 minutes longer between Luton and West Hampstead. I've quoted travelcard prices so you don't have to get off the train at Hendon, but if you did you could save a little more on option 3 by using 10x z1-3 singles instead (£31). Options 2 and 3 both take you to Baker Street via West Hampstead. Option 4 takes you to St John's Wood (the last stop in zone 2). With any travelcard on your Oyster you get free bus travel throughout London, so could take a bus from there to Baker Street if it was too far to walk. How appropriate this might be depends on where you are actually going.

Now, the next bit is don't buy monthly tickets! A monthly ticket is 3.84 times a weekly ticket. You can then add extra days for 1/30th of the monthly rate. So, say you started work on Monday 6th August. If you buy to Friday 7th September then you pay just 2 extra days, then you don't have a ticket for that weekend and buy again from Monday 10th September to Friday 12 October (1 month 3 days this time). If you are taking a week off then you might extend one ticket to say 7 weeks so that you can be without a season for 9 days while you are off. With careful planning this method can cost about the same as an annual season but with payments spread throughout the year.
 

zeddie

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9 Jul 2012
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Hi all,

Sorry for the late reply. Have been so busy with work handing things over ready for my new job. I really appreciate everyone who took the time to help me out and just want to say all of you have been so helpful with your suggestions. Im really touched!

I think after considering all options, the best one seems to be from bb21. Ill get a zones 2-6 season ticket (weekly as per advice from MikeWH) and go via the luton > west hampstead > st johns wood route and take the bus from there to baker street. I had no idea that a zone 2-6 season ticket would cover bus travel on zone 1!! Thanks for that info.

I COULD also get one of those foldable cycles and use it to cycle from st johns wood stn to my office at 1 baker street. Ive seen a lot of people do this and the bikes do seem light. (although theyre probably expensive!) Or if there are any of those barclays bike stands at st johns wood then i could use that too.

Interestingly, my new office is actually closer to marble arch and bond street stations than baker street, but the address is 1 baker st. Ive checked, and there are regular buses from st johns wood stn to 1 baker street and it takes about 15 mins.

thanks again!
 

soil

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It's only 3 miles to cycle from West Hampstead to Baker Street. I'd probably cycle on a £20 ebay bike (no slower than a Boris Bike anyway), and leave it at the station. Try and get something really ugly looking, don't bother with this folding nonsense. Getting tube between West Hampstead and St Johns Wood and then bus from there seems excessively complicated (not to mention slow compared with cycling), just cycle the whole way.
 

CheapAndNerdy

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Ill get a zones 2-6 season ticket (weekly as per advice from MikeWH)

I don't think MikeWH is recommending you buy a weekly ticket. What he is saying is don't simply buy a monthly ticket, but buy one a few days longer to take you to the Friday. Then you buy another one starting on the Monday. That way you "save" 2 days.
 

island

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Right. You can get a ticket for any period between a month and a year, so it's useful to buy five weeks at a time and avoid paying for one weekend in five. Better again if you can manage it is an annual ticket, as it costs around 41 weeks (probably wrong) and gives 34% off other journeys not covered by your annual ticket in the Network South East area.
 

zeddie

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9 Jul 2012
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Thanks CheapAndNerdy and everyone else for the clarification on why i shouldnt buy monthly tickets. That does make perfect sense now, although im still going to try and get the yearly season ticket loan from work. Unfortunately the maximum they will provide is £3000 and I need a bit more than that.

The cycling from west hampstead to baker street is certainly doable, (18 mins, i checked) but I dont know.. thing is ive never cycled on a main road before and its not something i feel comfortable doing over a long distance. From st johns wood it seems a lot shorter and i think i can manage that without crashing into a pole :roll:
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Ahh i think ive found the perfect solution.. Those barclays bike hires are so convenient. Theres a stand very near st johns wood station, and another one just opposite 1 baker street. Annual membership is only £45 to use the bikes when ever and drop them off and it takes like 8 mins to cycle from the station to work. So luton to west hampstead, tube to st johns wood, cycle to work. Whole journey will take around 1 hr : )
 

oversteer

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Ahh i think ive found the perfect solution.. Those barclays bike hires are so convenient. Theres a stand very near st johns wood station, and another one just opposite 1 baker street. Annual membership is only £45 to use the bikes when ever and drop them off and it takes like 8 mins to cycle from the station to work. So luton to west hampstead, tube to st johns wood, cycle to work. Whole journey will take around 1 hr : )

It is worth a try, what may scupper you is that all the bikes might disappear from St Johns Wood before you get there. I would be confident that you would have plenty of docking spaces around Baker Street though, the Marylebone commuters soon empty the docks in the morning!

There is a site where you can check historical figures for docks at each time of the day, maybe check that for that station.
 

soil

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I don't like the Boris Bikes very much; it usually turns out that the docking station you want to start from is empty and then the one you want to go to is full, so it ends up taking much longer. Plus of course you need to route between docking stations not to where you actually want to go. Buying a cheap and nasty bike is a better idea for a fixed journey.
 

zeddie

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9 Jul 2012
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Interesting point Soil and thanks for this useful info. I didnt think about slot availability. I have checked on the barclays bike app and at around 8.30am it always shows 0 bikes available at the st johns wood stand for both yesterday and today. So unless i get there at 5am then i dont think this solution is viable.

Now checking to see if there are any bike stands at st johns wood station where i can just park the bike im going to buy. Might just go there this weekend to check it out :)
 
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