Season Ticket Advice

[cuna84]

Hi all, I have never found this forum wanting in any way so here is another challenge for those ticket experts here
I am starting a new job this coming Tuesday (for unknown length of time, down to my choice since its an internship). I will be commuting from Kings Langley to Westminster and I am wondering whether it is cheaper to merely get a Monthly (best length of time to get for the moment, depending on how the job goes) from Kings Langley to Euston, and use my already existing Oyster card (with a YP railcard discount if its possible), or to buy a Kings Langley to Travelcard Zone 1 season (or 1-6 if thats the only one available)

 

[island]

Do you expect that you will, in general, be touching in to start your Oyster journeys between 0630 and 0930 or 1600 and 1900? (yes or no question rather than one or the other)

 

[cuna84]

Interesting question, my work starts at 10:00 am roughly but without cutting it too fine at the Westminster end I would imagine I would, if going down the Oyster route, be touching in before 9:30 and most certainly in the 16:00-19:00 period on the return, even if only to get a post work pint somewhere

 

[cuccir]

To inform your response to island's question: the arrival times at Euston that you'd be looking at are either 09:08 or 09:42 (I'm presuming you won't want to travel earlier!).

 

[island]

And the reason for the question is if you were touching in your Oyster outside those times you would be able to use your Railcard discount. Otherwise you are not.

A monthly season ticket is almost never the best length of time to get if you are working Monday to Friday.
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An Anytime Day Return from Kings Langley to London Terminals is £14.70, which drops to £12 with your 16-25 Railcard. If you can come up with £271.10 upfront, a Season 01m02d will work best (valid from Monday 3rd October to Friday 4th November, so you're not paying for weekends). An extra £72.90 gets you Season01m02d from Kings Langley to London Zones 1-6, which is cheaper than 25×2×£1.90 = £95 for doing that PAYG.

 

[cuna84]

Ah k, so in short since I will be travelling on the Tube during peak time, the cheapest option to get/purchase is the aforementioned season which includes Zones 1-6 (I am assuming that there is no such thing as a season which includes Zone 1 only, though I guess I may be travelling to other parts of London during this time so the 1-6 is best for flexiblity. So if my maths is correct its £344 pounds per month for the season ticket with Zones 1-6 included.

 

[Greenback]

As island said, it's usually advantageous not to think in terms of a monthly ticket, unless you will be travelling on weekends.

 

[cuna84]

Ah right in which case it is highly likely I won't be using it at the weekend, therefore I can only presume that my options are either a weekly ticket (at what cost) or the aforementioned option of buying daily the £12 return and then using the Oyster. If I take the monthly ticket option at £344 then dividing that by 20 (5 days x 4 weeks) its £17.20 a day. Surely the daily option would come close to that, especially if I am using Oyster during peak times. How does the weekly option compare to the £17.20 a day price that comes with the £344 Monthly Season.

 

[island]

You appear to have fallen into the common trap of thinking there is nothing other than weekly, monthly, and annual season tickets. The National Rail system allows you to buy any of those, but also a season ticket for your choice of duration greater than one month and less than one year (generally referred to as an "odd period season"). When Greenback states you should not think in terms of a monthly ticket, he means you should be thinking of longer periods, not shorter.

£344 is not the price of a monthly ticket, it is a ticket from a Monday in a 31-day month valid for one month plus to the end of that week, e.g. from the 3rd of October to the 4th of November inclusive. It covers 25 working days (Monday to Friday). [You will pay slightly more when buying in a 30-day month.]

For the record, the monthly ticket [stn]KGL[/stn] to London Zones 1-6 is £322.20, and the weekly ticket is £83.90, but neither of these are likely to be the most suitable for your purposes.

The day return is £12, plus £3.80 for your Oyster travel gives £15.80. £344 divided by 25 working days is £13.76 per day.

 

[MikeWh]

I think you might not quite be getting what we mean. A monthly ticket will give you a season valid for exactly one calendar month, ie it will expire on the day before it started the following month (3rd Oct-2nd Nov). But, you can buy seasons pro-rated for any period between 1 month and 1 year. If you buy 1 month and 2 days it will cost 2/30ths more than a month and take you up to the next Friday. You then don't buy your next ticket until 7th Nov meaning that you aren't paying for a weekend between. Even bigger savings can be made if you buy say 6 or 7 weeks where that takes you up to a whole week off and you save buy not having a ticket for 9 days.

 

[cuna84]

Yep, blonde moment from me guys, I am fully with you now (I hope lol), the problem comes in that I am unsure, as I said in the OP, as to the duration of my time working in this job. It could be weeks or months, hence why I picked at least initially a period of 1 month. I start work this coming Tuesday (4th October), so I need to work out an appropriate period of length, probs to and including Friday the 4th November. With all things considered the all inclusive Season with zones 1-6 does seem the best option to me since I will be travelling around London at various points during the same period and not just travelling to and from Euston and Westminster.

 

[Greenback]

Sounds like one month and one day would be a good starting point then. I assuem that you will know by 4th nov whether you will be continuing with your work, an dif so, for how long you will need the next ticket for?

 

[cuna84]

Well the initial period is a good length of time to work out whether the political scene is for me or not, the longest I will be working until is next summer. With the internship being unpaid, thats the most length of time my conscience will let me "sponge" off the parents :P, thanks for the help everyone

 

[Greenback]

No problem. I fyou do decide to work there until next Summer, remember to try and work your season ticket around any time off!

 

[island]

Good to hear. Do bear in mind that getting your first season ticket requires filling out a form and providing a passport-sized photo, so it will take a little time. Consider doing it in advance rather than on the morning to avoid slowing up the queue.