Which Season Ticket (albeit rail only comes closest to replicating the 41,000sq km geographic area of the Swiss National Travelcard at £3500?

[BlueLeanie]

In my thread on Winslow-London Season tickets, "Tester" wrote:-

All rather sobering, given that the full price annual Swiss GA Travelcard (which covers virtually all public transport throughout Switzerland) works out to around £3,500.

The Swiss Travelcard covers the full 41,000sq km of the Country. The closest we have in the UK at present is the TFL Annual season ticket for an Adult at £3,264 for zones 1,2,3,4,5&6. That covers around 2,400 square kilometres.

So what would be the single largest geographic area that could be covered in the UK with a £3,500 rail-only season ticket?

My first thought was a Falkirk Grahamston/High to Carstairs Season ticket, but that comes in at £3,700* (it is valid via Edinburgh, Cumbernauld, and Glasgow Queen St/Central, but I'm not sure of the nitty-gritty of routing) and covers around 2000 square kilometres.

Any other suggestions?



*Isn't it peculiar that a Season Ticket that's valid from Falkirk to Carstairs via or Edinburgh or Glasgow and could be used as a Season ticket between the cities is £150 cheaper than a ticket between Edinburgh & Glasgow?

 

[pokemonsuper9]

So what would be the single largest geographic area that could be covered in the UK with a £3,500 rail-only season ticket?

If you count 14 days as enough for a season (Northern certainly treat week tickets as seasons) the All Line Rover!

https://www.railrover.org/pages/all-line.html

standard class 7 day
adult: £625.00
child (5-15): £312.50
16-17 saver: £312.50
railcards ⯆
16 26 SE DI 2T FF H V £416.25
FF H V child fare: £118.75

standard class 14 day
adult: £949.00
child (5-15): £474.50
16-17 saver: £474.50
railcards ⯆
16 26 SE DI 2T FF H V £632.05
FF H V child fare: £180.30

1st class 7 day
adult: £949.00
child (5-15): £474.50
railcards ⯆
SE DI 2T H V £632.05
H V child fare: £180.30

1st class 14 day
adult: £1450.00
child (5-15): £725.00
railcards ⯆
SE DI 2T H V £965.70
H V child fare: £275.50

 

[A S Leib]

£3500 can get you an annual one-zone Anglia Plus season ticket with £564-£652 to spare. Norfolk is 5370 km² / 2074 mi² (but needs King's Lynn taken out), Suffolk is 3798 km² / 1466 mi² (but doesn't include Brandon, Newmarket or Sudbury) and the (northeastern) Cambridgeshire zone is ~908 km² / 351 mi².

(Technically this doesn't pass the rail-only test as I think it's valid for some buses in Ipswich, Norwich and elsewhere, but I'd guess Greater Anglia rather than a PTE, bus company etc. sets the fare?)