On 25 Oct, 17:56, kevgibbo wrote:
I am currently travelling from Didcot to Paddington twice every week
(thursday and fridays), this is costing in the region of £50 a day
including the london underground to Holborn. Leaving at 7.30 with the
return train at 17.30.

I wondered if anyone knows of a cheaper methods of doing this, perhaps
by purchasing a railcard?

Didcot or Oxford? I'm assuming Didcot, but the principle from Oxford
will be the same.

Yes, there are money-saving options compared to the £38.50 Standard
Day Return and £8 worth of single Tube fares.

In the morning, you're stuck paying £20.50 for a Standard Day Single,
because railcards aren't valid during the AM peak. In the afternoon,
it gets more interesting - railcards are valid, but some cheap tickets
are not.

If you want to travel home on fast trains during the peak, then you
can buy an annual Network Railcard for £20 (at any rail ticket office)
which gets you a 1/3 discount on another Standard Day Single from
London to Didcot, i.e. £13.55, for a total of £34.50.

If you don't mind traveling home on slower trains, or if you're not
going home until after 19:30, you can instead get a Cheap Day Single
from London to Didcot for £11.40 (including your new Railcard), for a
total of £31.90. Some of the 'slower' trains aren't actually all that
slow - the staff at Paddington can give you a list of which ones
you're allowed to take.

On the Tube, your best bet is to get a pay-as-you-go Oyster card and
pre-load it with some cash. This will charge you £1.50 for each Tube
journey you make, cutting your daily Tube commute down from £8 to £3.

In short - if you want to keep getting the same trains, then get a
Network Railcard, buy two singles one with the discount, use an Oyster
card for the Tube, and the whole trip will cost you £37.50 instead of
£46.50. You can save another £2.15 by getting slower trains in the
evening.

--
John Band
john at johnband dot org
www.johnband.org