On Jul 10, 11:19*am, "Ian F." wrote:
"Mizter T" wrote:
raft of useful information snipped
Except it was all written in the wrong context - for some reason I
misread your post as saying that you were starting from Brighton,
which is why my reply is all a bit back-to-front for your situation!
Thanks for that. I'm a reasonably savvy traveller, but I totally forgot
that, of course, one would have to touch out at the last station on the
Oyster and in again at, say, East Croydon.
I'm going from Balham (where I live) to Brighton for a couple of hours-worth
of meeting and then back home. Southern's £5/£8.50 return options are
clearly the best option, rather than involving Oyster at all.
Note that if you want to buy Southern's own Advance tickets (i.e. for
journeys wholly on Southern, such as Balham to Brighton), then buy
them from Southern's own website as they exclusively offer 25% off
these Advance fares (though that's not quite as good as the 40% off
they offered for ages until recently) - the three fare levels are thus
£3.75, £5.65 and £7.50.
As I also mentioned upthread, something else that might come in handy
is the Southern DaySave ticket (basically a rover ticket for Southern)
- peak restrictions do apply though, and it has to be bought at least
7 days in advance so that's no good for you making a trip next week.
Full info:
http://www.southernrailwaytickets.co...hp?page_id=189
That said, I've just remembered the slightly more expensive
"Downlander" ticket, which only needs to be purchased 2 days in
advance and furthermore is a 'print-at-home' ticket - it's intended to
promote tourism on the South Downs, but there's nothing to prevent you
using it for a trip from Balham to Brighton - well, apart from the
fact it can't be used before 10am on weekdays. If doing this I would
however factor in a bit of time to negotiate the gateline at Balham
(or other suburban stations served by Southern), as I rather suspect
many staff might not be all that clued up about its existence! Full
info:
http://www.southernrailwaytickets.co...hp?page_id=281