Hi,

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?

Thanks in advance,
Kevin

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

"kevgibbo" wrote in message
ups.com...


Hi,

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?

Thanks in advance,
Kevin


If you really are paying £50 per journey, and need to travel in peak times,
you may be surprised to know that a 7 day season is only £92. It used to be
the case that season tickets only became worthwhile after 3 or 4 daily
journeys, but such is the current pricing policy that often they're cheaper
than 2 trips...

Paul

On 25 Oct, 18:35, John B wrote:
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.

BUT railcards are not permitted on fast HST or Adelante services from
Paddington in the evening peak, You have to pay full fare to travel on
these services.

You can however, use a Network card discount on the slower turbo
services.

On 26 Oct, 22:35, Chris wrote:
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.

BUT railcards are not permitted on fast HST or Adelante services from
Paddington in the evening peak, You have to pay full fare to travel on
these services.

You can however, use a Network card discount on the slower turbo
services.

No, you're wrong.

Network Railcards are valid on *all* services within the Network Card
area after 10am on Mondays to Fridays subject to a £10 minimum fare,
and I've used them to purchase discounted Standard Day Singles
(obviously not discounted Cheap Day Singles, which wouldn't be
allowed) to travel on restricted weekday evening FGW trains.

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