On Fri, 02 Jun 2006 02:14:29 +0100, asdf wrote:

your annual Travelcard would come with a Gold Card. This
is a discount card which, amongst other things, lets you buy a Z1-6
ODTC for £4.80, saving a further 60p compared to getting an
undiscounted Z1-4 ODTC.

Ooh, that's very good - I had no idea you got a Gold Card just for a
two-zone annual travelcard, I had always (completely without basis)
assumed that the Gold Card was given only to buyers of the all zones
annual travelcard.

Having greatly missed my Young Person's Railcard since finally
surrendering it on the day before my 27th birthday last year (I read the
terms and conditions very carefully when I was about to turn 26!), I
would certainly like to have the benefits of a Gold Card.

That said...

There are many cases nowadays where it's cheaper to use
pre-pay each day rather than get a season.
....
you'd have to make over £100 worth of savings on rail and
additional bus journeys during the year for it to become worthwhile.
....
Compared to driving a car, the walking part is fine, but (depending
how frequent/reliable they are and how impatient you are) you may get
fed up having to wait around for buses every time. Perhaps you should
try it for a month or so (using pre-pay) before splashing out on an
annual season.

.... I think you're right - I should give it a try on Oyster Pre-Pay for
a while. I'm fortunate that the bus route to work (the 96, if anyone's
making notes) has always seemed very reliable and frequent on the
occasions when I have used it in the past, but then the Northern Line
seems quite good to me as a casual user so I think the plan to try it
out as an actual commuter for a bit definitely sounds good!

Anyway, thanks very much for all your comments - very useful feedback.

Paul