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With lock-down easing will you opt for an Annual Gold Card or Network Rail Card, if you travel within areas covered by them?

Will you opt for an annual season ticket with Gold Card; Network Rail Card or both?

  • Annual season ticket for work, with Gold Card, as you are going to regularly commute or already are

    Votes: 2 8.7%
  • Cheapest annual season ticket to obtain a Gold Card

    Votes: 5 21.7%
  • Network Rail Card

    Votes: 15 65.2%
  • Both as you have requirements for both, such as where travel on one scheme isn't supported.

    Votes: 1 4.3%

  • Total voters
    23
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infobleep

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Lock-down is starting to ease and more travel is likely to take place over the coming weeks and months. What are those of you, who live within the Network Rail Card area and/or Gold Card Area planning to do, to get your third off going forward? I've created a poll.

I initially couldn't decide whether to get the cheapest annual season ticket that includes a Gold Card or a Network Rail Card. However I remembered my old South West Trains Gold Card free-travel tickets, which cam be used on South Western Railway Services, on Fridas [with some exceptions], Saturdays and Sundays. So these. in my case, swing it towards getting the Gold Card.

According to a post by kristiang85, in the Season Ticket refund thread, they were able to retain a Gold Card when switching to the part time Exeter Central to Exeter St Davids season ticket. This is £152.00 for the year. I've assumed one can obtain this. I know there was uncertainty over this being eligible.

I changed to Exeter and have the Gold card.

A Network Rail Card costs £30.

I've done a comparison between them, of the pros and cons, which isn't complete but covers a fair number of points.

Annual Gold Card:
  • Pros over Network Rail Card
    • No minimum £13 fare during the week when valid.
    • Wider scheme in terms of coverage
    • A third off on the Underground
    • Ability to switch to another season ticket should the situation change
    • If you still have some old South West Trains Gold Card free-travel tickets, you can use them on Fridays [with some exceptions] and Saturdays and Sundays but only on South Western Railway services. This will offset the cost of the Gold Card.
  • Cons compared to Network Rail card
    • £122 more expensive than a Network Rail Card
    • In the current climate, how much travel will one do to cover the difference in costs? I think one needs to make enough sub £13 journeys, on Mondays to Fridays, to cover the difference or see the possibility that they will return to regular commuting at some point in the year, assuming one doesn't have any South West Trains Gold Card free-travel tickets.
Network Rail Card:
  • Pros over Annual Gold Card
    • £122 cheaper than an Annual Gold Card
    • Works on some train operators that don't accept Annual Gold Cards
  • Cons over Annual Gold Card
    • Minimum £13 fare during the week
    • No third off Underground travel
    • Scheme not as wide in terms of coverage
    • No ability to switch to another season ticket should the situation change and regular travel resume. In this case a season ticket would need to be purchased and you'd have a Gold Card running concurrently with a Network Rail Card.
    • No option to use the old South West Trains Gold Card free-travel tickets on Fridays [with some exceptions], Saturdays or Sundays.
Some travel examples. If one travels from Guildford to Woking of an evening and back, Mondays to Fridays, the Super Off Peak return ticket is, at full price, £5. However the Annual Gold Card discounted price is £3.30.

That is a saving of £1.70. However in order to break even on the £122 additional cost of a Gold Card, one would need to do 72 return journeys within a year. There is no discount for the Network Rail Card on Mondays to Fridays as the full price is under £13. I've not looked at the Off Peak price for this.

If one was going from Guildford to London the Super Off Peak ticket, at full price, is: £17.20. The annual gold card discount is £11.35. Again this is below the Network Rail Card discount threshold. The difference is £1.65 and you'd need to make 74 journeys to make it worthwhile.

If you went for an off peak day return ticket then, at full price, it becomes £21.90. The discount however becomes £14.45 and as this is above £13, there is no cost saving with the Annual Gold Card over a Network Rail Card.

However for those with any old South West Trains Gold Card free-travel tickets, you can get free journeys, which offsets the cost of the Gold Card. I have 11 of these remaining.

If I took those into account for the Super Off Peak travel into London, then £122/£11.35=11 trips to London in order to save. So that's a saving straight away with the Gold Card.

If it was the off peak return then it becomes: £122/£14.45=9 trips to London in order to save.

They can also be used in the peak on Fridays, with some exceptions or for longer journeys so there are other greater savings to be had. However it depends on what travel one might do within the 12 months from purchasing the Gold Card and how much of that might be doing on South Western Railway services.
 
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Hadders

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Other differences:

Gold Card discount is available from 09:30 on weekdays compared to 10:00 for the Network Railcard
The Gold Card Area is larger than the Network Railcard area as it covers much of the West Midlands and East Anglia
Gold Card discount isn't available on Avanti or LNER services (affects London to Milton Keynes and London to Stevenage)
A Gold Card enables you to purchase another railcard for yourself or another person (saving up to £20)
 

[.n]

Member
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Messages
706
I doubt that SWT tickets are still valid, I remember we had a lot of debate about this at the time SWR took over, I think the consensus was that they would still be valid for about a year. I certainly can't imagine they would still be valid, a fair amount of SWR staff are not going to recognise what they are now.

Having said that, if they are then great - I've loads left.

On the other issue, A Gold card is probably the best overall option (assuming you make enough travel to save the money), as it allows you buy a Network card as well if needed, the tiny use cases for where a Network card is better are limited
 

paul1609

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28 Jan 2006
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Location
Wittersham Kent
The real crux of the matter is where you live and where your regular journeys are to. My home station is Appledore (Kent). My regular journeys by rail London and Portsmouth are well over the £13.00 minimum. The majority of my travel is at the weekend. The 9.30 time limit is a factor on the hourly Marshlink but you simply buy an additional full price single to Hastings or Ashford.
I reckon the Network Card would work out £100+ pa cheaper than an annual gold card now ( I have held the IOW one in the past primarily for the SWT tickets).
 

swt_passenger

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This all seems complicated so I’ll carry on using my Senior Card... :D
...but if I was still under 60 I’d have a network card.
 
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Alex365Dash

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2 Jul 2019
Messages
677
Location
Brighton
I doubt that SWT tickets are still valid, I remember we had a lot of debate about this at the time SWR took over, I think the consensus was that they would still be valid for about a year.

Looks like they are still valid (provided you've maintained a Gold Card season ticket for an SWR route the entire time), just no more tickets are being issued for renewals.

South Western Railway said:
We will be continuing to accept the free weekend travel tickets you were offered by the previous franchisee, and these will be valid for use as long as you maintain a Gold Card season ticket for a SWR route and the original terms and conditions of issue will apply. We will not be offering these to customers that purchase or renew their ticket after the 19 August 2017. You will continue to receive the many other Gold Card benefits as detailed here.
 

infobleep

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This all seems complicated so I’ll carry on using my Senior Card... :D
...but if I was still under 60 I’d have a network card.
Lucky you! One of those times where being older is an advantage. :D

When I reach that age hopefully I'll do lots of train travel for pleasure.

In the mean time......
 

infobleep

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I'm still hoping at some point there will be a need for me to regularly travel by train again but even though I'm still working full time, it's not looking promising.....
 

swt_passenger

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Lucky you! One of those times where being older is an advantage. :D

When I reach that age hopefully I'll do lots of train travel for pleasure.

In the mean time......
I actually had both for 6 months, when my birthday came round I still had that much validity left on the Network Card, so I carried on using that at weekends to get discounts for family. But the better start time for the Senior Card meant it still paid for itself on a few earlier starts well before 1000 on weekdays. A changeover system might be useful for some people though.
 

infobleep

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Messages
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I wanted to add another dimension to this I'd not previously considered.

When I eventually make occasional trips into work, these will be after 9.30 to get a cheaper train ticket. If I make around 26 such return journeys a year, it will have covered the cost of my gold card. Even if I was to travel after 10am, the minimum Network Rail card fare would still cut in at £13 and it would be roughly 26-27 journeys needed to break even.

I'd previously only based my costs on usual lesiure trips.

Journeys to work would swing it to buying the cheapest annual sesoan ticket, even without the free gold card tickets. Always the possibility I don't make enough work journeys though or journeys are made in such away that I am in a position to claim the costs back.

At an educated guess I'd say journeys around the £13 mark at full price seem to be where the greatest savings of a Gold Card are, to offset the cost of the Annual Season Ticket
 
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