Leicester to London Commute

[DiproIV]

Hi All,

I'm currently commuting to London St Pancras from Leicester and the price of the ticket is pretty high - £271 a week. I've been trying to find a way to reduce the cost of the train ticket as much as possible, and after browsing the forums here for a while I noticed you can split tickets in various ways. Only problem is the Info regarding Leicester -> London is quite outdated and threads are years old now which means the fares are no longer the same price and i'm unsure if terms and conditions have changed.

Currently I've got my ticket down to £221 a week by;

• Leicester -> Kettering week pass
• Kettering to Bedford Weekpass
• Bedford Thameslink -> City Thameslink weekpass

Is there any other way I can reduce the cost of this commute? Money is tight so any savings is really helping.

 

[bb21]

That split will restrict you to the hourly stopping services at roughly xx32 from Leicester as your train will need to stop at all those stations.

 

[DiproIV]

I feel like ~£200 a month is worth being 15minutes or so later home

 

[Hadders]

Leicester-London Terminals is £253.20 per week. I assume you are then paying separately for your journey to City Thameslink.

You can get a Leciester-London Thameslink season ticket for £260 per week. Whilst more expensive than your split you wouldn't be limited to the services that stop at Bedford and Kettering.

Alternatively if you can afford the initial outlay an annual season ticket would be better value or consider odd-period monthly season tickets.

 

[Camden]

Can you drive the 20 odd miles to Rugby by any chance?

Per week:
£141.00 (or £196.00 including Z1-6 travelcard) - London Midland only
£190.60 (or £202.10 including Z1-6 travelcard) - any permitted

If you're planning on changing for Thameslink at Bedford, I doubt it would much much slower.

 

[island]

Can you drive the 20 odd miles to Rugby by any chance?

Per week:
£141.00 (or £196.00 including Z1-6 travelcard) - London Midland only
£190.60 (or £202.10 including Z1-6 travelcard) - any permitted

If you're planning on changing for Thameslink at Bedford, I doubt it would much much slower.

A colleague of mine does this.

You can save more money by buying monthly or longer season tickets.

 

[MikeWh]

Per week:
£141.00 (or £196.00 including Z1-6 travelcard) - London Midland only

That is one of the biggest addons for zones 1-6 I have seen. It's cheaper to buy a separate zones 1-2 or zones 1-3 travelcard if you only need to travel in the centre or just outside.

 

[westv]

Is this commute short term? If more than 12 months get an annual.

 

[Abpj17]

Season would be much much better. Coming from that distance out, I'd avoid TL as well - the service isn't reliable enough to connect with the EMTs or are you finding it ok? Or are you somehow on the EMTs with a Thameslink-only ticket?

 

[Hadders]

A Bedford - London Thameslink is routed 'Any Permitted' so is valid on EMT services between Bedford and St Pancras.

The 'Thameslink' bit means it is valid through to Farringdon, City Thameslink, Blackfriars, London Bridge and Elephant & Castle.