Something better than a flexi season for my journey?

[bananas]

I'll be making a number of return journeys from Nottingham (Beeston station is actually marginally preferable, when suitably-timed trains stop there) to Walthamstow Central in London, on an unpredictable subset of weekdays in the last three weeks of August, probably one to three days per week. I will have limited flexibility to choose which days I go, and in any case I'll know by at least one day before whether I'll need to go.

I'll need to be in Walthamstow by around 10am each day, and don't want to get up too early, so speed is important. On the way back though I can be flexible in the mid-afternoons or evenings, to avoid peak times.

I could drive some of the way, but the extra time it would take in the mornings, with the pain of rush hour and parking, seems to outweigh the cost difference to me.

A flexi season ticket for 8 in 28 days sounds perfect ...except that with my railcard it turns out I can do much cheaper just buying (split) return tickets.

Needing to arrive in the morning peak seems to make any rovers not worthwhile.

I've read that if you book with Transport for Wales then you can exchange advance tickets (for all operators) with no fees. Is this true? If so, would it be sensible to buy Advances now (or as soon as booking opens) on TfW's website (possibly with manually split tickets), for a random selection of days
and then exchange them at short notice if I end up picking days that don't work?

What are your thoughts? Have I missed any other options I should consider?

 

[drueberflug]

There are no Flexi Seasons offered between Nottingham/Beeston and Walthamstow Central unfortunately.

The forum's ticketing page seems to often issue a through ticket for the outward journey (in this case, Beeston to London Underground and DLR Zones 1-3; via Grantham), but then splits the return journey at Peterborough. In this case, you will want to have a through itinerary, which TfW can't give you, as it is not intended for the sale of split tickets.

Also, looking at the procedures, exchanging Advance tickets with TfW seems to be a hassle, even with the exchange apparently being free.
Furthermore, I could imagine that the free exchange only applies to Advance tickets on TfW services.

 

[akm]

On CrossCountry (website and app), the process of changing date/time for an Advance is basically seamless. You must of course keep the same origin and destination; you will pay more if the new one is more expensive, and you get nothing back if the new one is cheaper.

 

[kieron]

There are no Flexi Seasons offered between Nottingham/Beeston and Walthamstow Central unfortunately.

Flexi Seasons are offered between Nottingham (or Beeston) and London, and these are valid via Walthamstow. As flexi seasons allow you to make any number of journeys on the day of travel, this would allow a Nottingham-London-Walthamstow jouney. It doesn't cover the cost of cross-London travel on London Underground, though.

Those flexi-seasons aren't worth buying here, though. They cost over £120 a day when someone in @bananas' situation could pay less that £100 a day even without using Advance tickets.

 

[drueberflug]

Flexi Seasons are offered between Nottingham (or Beeston) and London, and these are valid via Walthamstow.

No mapped route between Nottingham Group and London Group has Walthamstow Central in it.
Mapped journeys to London are KS, NM and PN+KP, all of them enforce travel either via the MML or the ECML.
Meanwhile, Nottingham Group to Walthamstow Central is mapped on LONDON.
Just because travelling to Walthamstow via London is permitted doesn't mean that travelling to London via Walthamstow to London is as well.

 

[kieron]

No mapped route between Nottingham Group and London Group has Walthamstow Central in it.

It's not a mapped route, no. My guess is that it's being offered as a route because of way retailers implement the shortest route rule.

This only works for flexi seasons because they are season tickets. With singles or returns, buying a ticket to the actual destination is probably better.

 

[drueberflug]

It's not a mapped route, no. My guess is that it's being offered as a route because of way retailers implement the shortest route rule.

Considering that Walthamstow Central is on a branch line not leading into any London Terminal, and that the detour would surely not be within 3 miles of the shortest route, I'd recommend not to buy Beeston to London flex tickets to get to Walthamstow.

 

[kieron]

Considering that Walthamstow Central is on a branch line not leading into any London Terminal, and that the detour would surely not be within 3 miles of the shortest route, I'd recommend not to buy Beeston to London flex tickets to get to Walthamstow.

I was just speculating about what @bananas may have been referring to.

If you're interested, the rail industry think you can walk from Walthamstow Central to Walthamstow Queen's Road in 7 minutes. That allows various permitted routes which involve a walk between the two stations.

As it happens, Walthamstow Queen's Road isn't served by rail replacement buses, and travellers are advised on nre.co.uk (link) to go to Walthamstow Central instead.

 

[drueberflug]

If you're interested, the rail industry think you can walk from Walthamstow Central to Walthamstow Queen's Road in 7 minutes. That allows various permitted routes which involve a walk between the two stations.

As it happens, Walthamstow Queen's Road isn't served by rail replacement buses, and travellers are advised on nre.co.uk (link) to go to Walthamstow Central instead.

The thing is, there is currently no disruption we know of that would allow for that, and Walthamstow Queen's Road, while considerably closer to both the ECML and MML, is still on no permitted route.

However, if one were to just use contactless or Oyster for the Z1-Z3 journey to Walthamstow, and only look at the Beeston to London (not Walthamstow) part, 3 weeks worth of Beeston-London 7 day tickets (routed via Grantham) are a bit cheaper (about £22) than the equivalent Flexi fare (£961.20).

The Beeston to London Travelcard Zone 1-6 season tickets (the only ones available for Walthamstow) might be worth it if one intended to travel a bit around London, or just for the comfort of not having to have 2 different tickets, as the saving would be rather small at about £10 when considering the TfL fares incurred by the commute between King's Cross St Pancras and Walthamstow Central.