My commute in/out of London

[ad_the_man]

Hey there

I'm looking at money saving on my fares and have a few questions.

I get the train into St Pancras every morning from Bedford, and travel to canary wharf, or certain other areas on occasions around London (up to Zone 3 boundary). Then commute home of course to Bedford again.

I have just purchased another annual 1-3 travelcard for use in London and am buying a national rail Bedford-Pancras ticket for £345 every month (as 1,3,6 month tickets work out the same). This national raail ticket runs out on thursday and am looking at getting an annual one as it saves £50pcm over the 1,3,5 monthly ones.

My question is, can I buy the national rail + zone 1-3 in London travelcard together for a further reduced rate, or will I have to stick with my rail ticket for about £3600, and my separate annual oyster 1-3 card (and cancel/return)? If I can combine them I would obviously have to get re-imbursed for the annual oyster 1-3 I just bought.


Thanks

 

[yorkie]

You can only buy Z1-6 inclusive seasons from out-boundary stations (in effect you would be getting a Peterborough-Boundary Zone 6 + All Zones).

An annual would also be a Gold Card, giving you 1/3 off all fares in the South East (without the £10 minimum fare), plus cheap first class upgrades.

I think you may be able to combine an Oyster with a season ticket tot the first station in the relevant zone, rather than have to buy all the way to STP.

BTW why is your current monthly expiring on Thursday - do you not work Fridays? You can make a monthly last any length greater than a month to make it last 5 weeks. That way every 5th weekend you are not paying for a season ticket, and over a year you can save a fair bit. It's better to get a Gold Card though.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

You can only buy Z1-6 inclusive seasons from out-boundary stations (in effect you would be getting a Peterborough-Boundary Zone 6 + All Zones).

:? Peterborough?

A standard class all zones annual gold travelcard from Bedford to London would I believe cost £4260 at present, equivalent to £355 per month.

 

[glynn80]

Well it doesn't seem as if you can purchase a Bedford to London season and then a Zones 123 season because Bedford is outside the Zone 6 boundary and thus you would need to pass through these zones to arrive into London. You can however purchase a Bedford to Zone R1256 Zones, which is a Bedford to Boundary Zone 6 season and then a Travelcard Zones 1-6, this is £4260 for an annual.

 

[ad_the_man]

You can only buy Z1-6 inclusive seasons from out-boundary stations (in effect you would be getting a Peterborough-Boundary Zone 6 + All Zones).

An annual would also be a Gold Card, giving you 1/3 off all fares in the South East (without the £10 minimum fare), plus cheap first class upgrades.

I think you may be able to combine an Oyster with a season ticket to the first station in the relevant zone, rather than have to buy all the way to STP.

BTW why is your current monthly expiring on Thursday - do you not work Fridays? You can make a monthly last any length greater than a month to make it last 5 weeks. That way every 5th weekend you are not paying for a season ticket, and over a year you can save a fair bit. It's better to get a Gold Card though.

Expires on a thursday just because that's when I bought it a month ago. I don't have much knowledge on fares and am still a noobie

Well it doesn't seem as if you can purchase a Bedford to London season and then a Zones 123 season because Bedford is outside the Zone 6 boundary and thus you would need to pass through these zones to arrive into London. You can however purchase a Bedford to Zone R1256 Zones, which is a Bedford to Boundary Zone 6 season and then a Travelcard Zones 1-6, this is £4260 for an annual.

I think I'm getting this now, and didn't realise it would be cheaper to get national rail annual season ticket to boundary zone 6, then a 1-6 annual oyster for use in london. Just checked on the national rail site and got to £4300 with train from bedford - Elstree & borehamwood then zone 1-6 in London.

I can't believe the saving, £500 compared to Bedford-pancras+ zone 1-3. Only problem I see is at st pancras the East Midlands people check your tickets before allowing you onto the train, so would I have a problem if I presented them a Boundary zone 6 - bedford + 1-6 oyster on a train that has its first stop as bedford once out of pancras ? I can't remember if I have seen them with oyster readers.

Also, their website is useless on explaining a gold card, I guess you automatically get one because it's annual.

Ok so next steps, I have my 1-3 oyster annual card for London, do I have to get this cancelled and re-imbursed, or can I just go to a ticket office and get the additional zones 4-6 put on top of the 1-3 I already have and then just pay the difference ? I don't have the liquid cash to buy a Bedford-zone 6 annual, zone 1-6 annual, and then wait weeks (??) for my £1208 re-imbursement on my 1-3 ??

Thanks for the help guys, you have already saved me hundreds

 

[glynn80]

I think I'm getting this now, and didn't realise it would be cheaper to get national rail annual season ticket to boundary zone 6, then a 1-6 annual oyster for use in london. Just checked on the national rail site and got to £4300 with train from bedford - Elstree & borehamwood then zone 1-6 in London.

I can't believe the saving, £500 compared to Bedford-pancras+ zone 1-3. Only problem I see is at st pancras the East Midlands people check your tickets before allowing you onto the train, so would I have a problem if I presented them a Boundary zone 6 - bedford + 1-6 oyster on a train that has its first stop as bedford once out of pancras ? I can't remember if I have seen them with oyster readers.

I think you are getting a little confused.

The ticket you would purchase would be a Bedford to R1256 Zones (it would look similar to this http://therailticketgallery.fotopic.net/p2597521.html).

This ticket would allow you the same usage as a Travelcard Zones 1-6 and then a Boundary Zone 6 extension to Bedford. It is not however not two seperate tickets. The ticket would be valid on any service out of St Pancras whether East Midlands Trains or Thameslink.

You would not have an Oyster with your season on at all, your season ticket would be as I have shown you above- a paper ticket with both National Rail and Travelcard all rolled into one.

The next step for you is to take you Zones 1-3 Oyster for refund and then go to any National Rail ticket office to purchase your Bedford to R1256 Zones ticket (coast £4260).

 

[ad_the_man]

I think I was a little confused about it being 2 tickets. Thanks for the image, I now get that it is an all in one ticket. Come to think of it, I see plenty of commuters using a ticket rather than an oyster card when on the underground anyway. Now I realise that I would have been paying £500 extra for the advantage of a swipy card and less zones travel

One final question, do you have any idea the length of time it takes before my Oyster refund will hit my bank account ? Is it something that has to be done via a form and take, for example 14 days, or can it be done straight away, like say a refund at a shop for returned clothing timescale ?

Cheers

 

[glynn80]

I think I was a little confused about it being 2 tickets. Thanks for the image, I now get that it is an all in one ticket. Come to think of it, I see plenty of commuters using a ticket rather than an oyster card when on the underground anyway. Now I realise that I would have been paying £500 extra for the advantage of a swipy card and less zones travel

One final question, do you have any idea the length of time it takes before my Oyster refund will hit my bank account ? Is it something that has to be done via a form and take, for example 14 days, or can it be done straight away, like say a refund at a shop for returned clothing timescale ?

Cheers

I'm pretty sure it can be authorised while you wait at the ticket office, but will probably take 3 days to clear through the banks.

 

[ad_the_man]

Ok, will see if I can sweet talk the person at the counter to push it through, quickly. I shall have to wait and see.

Checked at Bedford station yesterday and the Bedford - R1256 Gold Card is £4260.

Will buy it on thursday as long as the transferred funds arrive by then, otherwise I will have to get a standard Bedford-Zone 3 Boundary for a week to tide me over. Just to check, can this and my oyster 1-3 travelcard be used for something like an East Midlands train direct from Pancras - Bedford, or will East Midlands not accept my Oyster ?

 

[yorkie]

You cannot get a season from Boundary Zones. However a season from Bedford to the first station in the zones plus a Travelcard on Oyster may be valid, although this was the subject of some debate, as if the Travelcard counted as a season it would not be valid but if it counts as a PTE ticket it is valid.

I think Jon Morris may be able to help with this as he used to (perhaps still does) use a Hatfield to Hadley Wood plus Z1-6 travelcard on Oyster and got a letter from WAGN (as it was then) stating this was valid.

So unless it´s changed....