London - Brighton ticket advice please.

[trickyvegas]

Would be grateful if someone could advise on the cheapest way of doing this return journey.

I'm due to arrive in Euston on Fri 14/12/12 at 12.23 on a Virgin advance and need to be back at Euston on Sat 15/12/12 in time for a 14.00 departure.

I can be pretty flexible on times in both directions as any filler time can be spent Christmas shopping or sightseeing.

I have no railcards.

Thanks in advance.

 

[transmanche]

FCC-only off-peak return from St Pancras is £28.50. The Any Permitted (valid from Victoria) is £30.70.

Advances are still available on Southern from Victoria at suitable times: £7.50 for the outbound journey, £10 for the return.

 

[Be3G]

Though if considering the advances from Victoria, bear in mind that you'd need to add an extra £2.00 each way for a tube journey between the two using Oyster PAYG; £4.30 each way if using paper tickets. St. Pancras, on the other hand, is about a ten minute's walk away.

 

[johnnycache]

Your train on 14/12 calls Milton Keynes 1147
Southern still have Advance tickets leaving Milton Keynes at 1213 to Brighton (change at Clapham Junction) arriving at 1428 for £7.50 (this avoiding any cross london fares and you can do your sight seeing on the West London Line)

Can't do this on the way back as your first stop out of London is Stoke on Trent but Advances available to Victoria

Also...from tomorrow you can pay for bus trips in London by touching a debit/credit card on the reader for £1.35 per trip - so see the sights by using the bus!

 

[Deerfold]

Your train on 14/12 calls Milton Keynes 1147
Southern still have Advance tickets leaving Milton Keynes at 1213 to Brighton (change at Clapham Junction) arriving at 1428 for £7.50 (this avoiding any cross london fares and you can do your sight seeing on the West London Line)

Though of course the OP would be breaking the conditions of their existing Advance if they were to get out at Milton Keynes.

Also...from tomorrow you can pay for bus trips in London by touching a debit/credit card on the reader for £1.35 per trip - so see the sights by using the bus!

But do be aware that for the moment there's no cap.

 

[cjohnson]

Also...from tomorrow you can pay for bus trips in London by touching a debit/credit card on the reader for £1.35 per trip - so see the sights by using the bus!

Make sure it's a 'contactless' card though!

(No idea how this will work with my Barclaycard OnePulse combined contactless/Oyster card...)

 

[maniacmartin]

If you haven't got much luggage I would walk to St Pancras take the FCC Thameslink service that Be3G recommended if you want to save on Oyster/tube fares. Its easy to find as its just a walk down one street.

 

[transmanche]

If you haven't got much luggage I would walk to St Pancras take the FCC Thameslink service that Be3G recommended if you want to save on Oyster/tube fares.

Even if travelling with Advances on Southern and paying the Oyster fare saves a net £7?

 

[maniacmartin]

Sorry, misread!

 

[LexyBoy]

Though of course the OP would be breaking the conditions of their existing Advance if they were to get out at Milton Keynes.

They'd not be breaking the conditions of their ticket; there's no requirement for the whole journey to be that on the Advance ticket, as more than one ticket may be used to make a single journey

 

[maniacmartin]

They'd not be breaking the conditions of their ticket; there's no requirement for the whole journey to be that on the Advance ticket, as more than one ticket may be used to make a single journey

Taking the West London Line means the OP wouldn't be going to Euston so it would be stopping short

 

[trickyvegas]

Thanks for all the suggestions folks. I have opted for the £7.50 advance from Victoria at 13.36 - The MKC option had merits but was quite a slow-looking journey and as it should be nice and sunny I'll strap on some iTunes and enjoy the walk from Euston. No £10 advances now available for the times I needed so gone for a super off peak day single at £12.90 coming back. So £8 saved and 6 miles of exercise to boot. Good work folks.

 

[hairyhandedfool]

They'd not be breaking the conditions of their ticket; there's no requirement for the whole journey to be that on the Advance ticket, as more than one ticket may be used to make a single journey

Advance tickets are only valid for point to point travel, therefore the Op has a ticket valid to Euston, but not to Milton Keynes.

 

[Paul Kelly]

Taking the West London Line means the OP wouldn't be going to Euston so it would be stopping short

In my interpretation, that would only be a problem were the passenger to leave the station at Milton Keynes. The passenger is actually making a through journey to Brighton, combining two tickets under NRCoC condition 19:

You may use two or more tickets for one journey as long as together they cover the entire journey and one of the following applies:
(a) they are both Zonal Tickets (unless special conditions prohibit their use);
(b) the train you are in calls at a station where you change from one ticket to another; or
(c) one of the tickets is a Season Ticket (which for this purpose does not include Season Tickets or travel passes issued on behalf of a passenger transport executive or local authority) or a leisure travel pass, and the other ticket(s) is/are not.

Advance fares don't allow break of journey, but no break of journey will take place if the passenger joins another train to continue their through journey to Brighton without leaving the station at Milton Keynes:

you will be treated as breaking your journey if you leave a Train Company’s or Rail Service Company’s stations after you start your journey other than:
(i) to join a train at another station, or
(ii) to stay in overnight accommodation when you cannot reasonably
complete your journey within one day, or
(iii) to follow any instructions given by a member of a Train Company’s staff.

 

[Deerfold]

Advance fares don't allow break of journey, but no break of journey will take place if the passenger joins another train to continue their through journey to Brighton without leaving the station at Milton Keynes:

Perhaps - but it's certainly against the spirit of Advance tickets and I wouldn't advise anyone to do that if they wanted to avoid the chance of someone taking excpetion to their tickets (perhaps unlikely to be checked, but very likely to result in a long discussion if they are).

 

[hairyhandedfool]

Condition 19 states that the tickets must cover the entire journey in addition to one of the three options. Therefore the Advance ticket must be valid to Milton Keynes in order for the combination to be valid. The Advance ticket is to Euston and is therefore not valid to Milton Keynes. The combination, therefore, does not cover the entire journey.