5.4 Season Tickets
A
season ticket offers the holder unlimited travel between the origin and the destination during its period of validity. A season ticket also offers the holder unlimited travel to/from any intermediate station along any permitted route between the origin and the destination. Please note that in some cases, you may be limited in your choice of routes if the ticket is not routed
Any Permitted.
Please note that point-to-point National Rail season tickets may not be available for some journeys solely within PTE areas. They may be more expensive than PTE products (Section
5.7) where available.
5.4.1 Time Restrictions
With the exception of a small number of products, for example the Early Bird Season from First Transpennine Express, season tickets have no time restriction.
5.4.2 Ticket Issuing
A season ticket may be issued for a period of one week, or any length of time between one month and 12 months.
A season ticket should be issued as one coupon. It is only valid if accompanied by a Photocard bearing the serial number noted on the ticket.
Season tickets valid for a period of 10 months 13 days or longer are not normally issued, as they will be more expensive than annual seasons. The annual season tickets are issued instead, on Gold Card stock where appropriate. Under certain circumstances, it would however be appropriate to issue a season ticket for such a time period due to other constraints. For example, a child turning 16 in 7 months’ time must be issued a child season for no longer than 11 months at the annual season price with child discounts (thanks to an easement on child-rate season tickets allowing it to expire "
up to a maximum of four months after the 16th birthday").
For examples of calculations, please see Section
5.14.1.
5.4.3 NRCoC Condition 19
A National Rail season ticket is considered a
season ticket in the context of
Condition 19(c).
5.4.4 Price of Monthly Season or Longer (Whole Month Season Tickets)
Generally speaking, the price of the weekly season ticket, valid for seven consecutive days, is the
base rate for calculating the price of longer-period season tickets. Visit
BR Fares if you wish to find out the price of a weekly season ticket.
The price of a monthly or an annual season ticket can be calculated using these formulae:
Code:
price of monthly season ticket = 3.84 x base rate
price of annual season ticket = 40 x base rate
The price of a season ticket valid for multiple months is calculated as the corresponding multiple of the price of a monthly season ticket. The final calculation is rounded up to the next 10p.
5.4.5 Price of Monthly Season or Longer (Odd Period Season Tickets)
The price of the part-month for a season ticket valid for a period between one month and 12 months other than whole months is calculated using the corresponding factor shown in the table below multiplied by the base rate. The price of the part month is capped by the price of a monthly season.
Code:
Days Factor Days Factor Days Factor Days Factor Days Factor
---- ------ ---- ------ ---- ------ ---- ------ ---- ------
1 0.13 2 0.26 3 0.39 4 0.52 5 0.64
6 0.77 7 0.90 8 1.03 9 1.16 10 1.28
11 1.41 12 1.54 13 1.67 14 1.80 15 1.92
16 2.05 17 2.18 18 2.31 19 2.44 20 2.56
21 2.69 22 2.82 23 2.95 24 3.08 25 3.20
26 3.33 27 3.46 28 3.59 29 3.72 30 3.84
The final calculation is rounded up to the next 10p.
5.4.6 Price of Monthly Season or Longer (Market-Based Pricing)
Some intercity flows use market-based pricing, where the base rate is lower than the actual price of a weekly season ticket. In these cases, the price of a season ticket valid for a month or longer should be calculated using the base rate. Some flows do not have weekly season tickets available, however a base rate may still exist for such a flow so that season tickets valid for one month or more can be priced.
BR Fares gives details of the base rate for any particular flow, if one exists. Alternatively
Southern Railway's Season Ticket Calculator will give the price of the annual season ticket, which can be used to calculate the base rate by dividing 40 into it.
5.4.7 Gold Card Benefits
An annual season ticket acts as a Gold Card where the origin and/or the destination station is inside the Annual Gold Card
area.
The benefits for a Gold Card holder include:
- a £10 16-25, Senior, Disabled, Family & Friends, Two Together or Network Railcard for a nominated individual (who can also be the Gold Card holder if desired);
- discounted single fares at off-peak times on National Rail, London Underground and Docklands Light Railway services within the London zonal area;
- discounted off-peak caps with the London zonal area;
- discounted Off-Peak Day Travelcard with validity covering at least Zones 1-6;
- discounted Anytime Day Travelcard from a station outside the London zonal area after 0930 on weekdays and anytime at weekends (minimum fare £17);
- up to four adults (including the Gold Card holder) travel for discounted prices with the Gold Card holder on Anytime or (Super) Off-Peak fares after 0930 on weekdays and anytime at weekends;
- up to four children enjoy 60% off child fares (minimum £1);
- discounted PlusBus tickets within the Network Railcard area;
- discounts on journeys to the Isle of Wight using Wightlink, Red Funnel and HoverTravel.
Make sure that you purchase your season ticket from a ticket office within the Annual Gold Card
area to ensure that it is issued on Gold Card stock. Only a handful of ticket offices outside the area have Gold Card stock available and tickets purchased from outside the area may not be issued on them.
For more details, visit
this page.
Please note that a child-rate or Privilege season ticket cannot be issued as a Gold Card, regardless of the validity and where it is issued.
5.4.8 Season Tickets (Used as Leisure Products)
Some origin-destination combinations offer a wide range of permitted routes. These tickets can effectively act as rover products for a small region, for which a rover product may or may not exist.
In some cases a season ticket with wide validity can be preferable over a rover product, due to its lack of time restrictions.
One example is a ROMSEY [NLC 5943] - LONDON TERMINALS [NLC 1072]
Route Any Permitted season ticket. This ticket is valid within the area bounded roughly by Southampton Central, Salisbury, Basingstoke, Reading, Slough, Hayes & Harlington, London Paddington, (across south London to the other side and) London Bridge, East Croydon, Gatwick Airport, Brighton and the south coast.
Maximising value
If you wish to purchase a season ticket, it is worth checking prices from nearby stations which might be the same. Doing so could provide opportunities to save money on journeys not covered by the season ticket. For example, instead of purchasing a LUTON [NLC 1536] - LEICESTER [NLC 1947] season ticket, buy a HARPENDEN [NLC 1543] - LEICESTER [NLC 1947] season ticket (valid via Luton), which is the same price. This way if you wish to travel to London, you only have to pay from Harpenden.