Bushy Park to Luton and return to Croydon.

[londonbridge]

October 29th, I’m planning parkrun at Bushy Park, then travel to Luton for football and return to Croydon after the match. I’m thinking contactless from either Teddington or Kingston to Luton Airport Parkway, and Parkway to Croydon, and probably walk/jog from Parkway to the ground and back. Or is there a paper ticket(s) which would be a better/cheaper option?

 

[Watershed]

October 29th, I’m planning parkrun at Bushy Park, then travel to Luton for football and return to Croydon after the match. I’m thinking contactless from either Teddington or Kingston to Luton Airport Parkway, and Parkway to Croydon, and probably walk/jog from Parkway to the ground and back. Or is there a paper ticket(s) which would be a better/cheaper option?

Using contactless would cost £10.60 each way, i.e. £21.20 in total.

It would be marginally cheaper to buy a ticket from somewhere like Waddon to Luton Airport Parkway (£16.60 as it's a weekend) and use contactless/Oyster from Teddington/Kingston to Wimbledon (£3.10) - but this would necessitate 'stepping back' a train at Wimbledon in order to touch out, in exchange for a saving of just £1.50. So probably not worthwhile.

If you were making the journey in reverse, you could use the good value outboundary Travelcard (£19.10), but unfortunately this doesn't work when you're coming from within the Zones.

 

[londonbridge]

Thanks, should add I’ll already have spent £1.65 on an X26 to Bushy for the run first, not sure if that’ll affect any capping involved.

Edit: I see there’s an avoiding Z1 fare for the outbound leg of £8:50 changing at Richmond or Clapham and West Hampstead/West Hampstead Thameslink, but it doesn’t offer a similar fare for the return, presumably because the default route for Parkway to East Croydon is the direct train and they think no one will bother slowing themselves down by changing to avoid Z1?

 

[Haywain]

Worth bearing in mind that to go to football at Luton Town you will want to travel to Luton rather than Luton Airport Parkway, and contactless is not accepted at Luton. So, to use contactless you would need to leave the train at Luton Airport Parkway to touch out and then hold another ticket for onward travel to Luton - unless you fancy the extra mile of walking along busy main roads.

 

[Watershed]

Thanks, should add I’ll already have spent £1.65 on an X26 to Bushy for the run first, not sure if that’ll affect any capping involved.

It will count towards the daily cap, but unless you also undertake other travel that day, I don't think you'll hit any caps. The backend system will, however, work out the cheapest combination of caps and extension fares, so this is the most you'll pay - it could be less. Again, unfortunate that you can't use the outboundary Travelcard as that would have covered the bus.

Edit: I see there’s an avoiding Z1 fare for the outbound leg of £8:50 changing at Richmond or Clapham and West Hampstead/West Hampstead Thameslink, but it doesn’t offer a similar fare for the return, presumably because the default route for Parkway to East Croydon is the direct train and they think no one will bother slowing themselves down by changing to avoid Z1?

That's correct, I think it's assumed to be too circuitous of a route to be plausible.

'Splitting' at Radlett (touching out and back in) is marginally (70p) cheaper, but again would probably require stepping back a train.

 

[londonbridge]

Thanks Haywain, I know parkway is the contactless boundary, a super offpeak day return between parkway and Luton is only £2:50 and I can offset most of that by avoiding zone 1 on the outward leg (or just have a jog between Parkway and the ground).

Thanks for advice all….