'Split' Season Tickets

[purple-Azumas]

Appreciate people might not want to share examples as season tickets can be expensive, but just had a couple of questions:

1. Are split season tickets (i.e. season tickets A-B and B-C for an A-C journey) ever value for money (cheaper than an A-C season)?
2. If there are examples, are these as commonplace as split tickets for single/return journeys?
3. If a split combination is value for money for a single/return journey, does this mean the equivalent seasons are also value for money?
4. Conversely, are there examples where splitting season tickets is value for money, but this isn't the case for a simple single/return journey?
5. Could you load multiple 'split' season tickets onto the same ITSO smartcard? Is there a limit as to how many 'splits' you could make if the season tickets needed to be fulfilled to ITSO?

There's no journey in mind here whatsoever - the thought just came to me that we talk about split tickets for single/return journeys a lot, but season tickets are rarely discussed!

Thanks in advance for your replies!

 

[Jan Mayen]

I've had an annual Crawley - London Victoria and a weekly Tonbridge - Portsmouth loaded onto a Southern Smartcard at the same.

The former for commuting, the latter used as a rover ticket

 

[Haywain]

Appreciate people might not want to share examples as season tickets can be expensive, but just had a couple of questions:

1. Are split season tickets (i.e. season tickets A-B and B-C for an A-C journey) ever value for money (cheaper than an A-C season)?
2. If there are examples, are these as commonplace as split tickets for single/return journeys?
3. If a split combination is value for money for a single/return journey, does this mean the equivalent seasons are also value for money?
4. Conversely, are there examples where splitting season tickets is value for money, but this isn't the case for a simple single/return journey?
5. Could you load multiple 'split' season tickets onto the same ITSO smartcard? Is there a limit as to how many 'splits' you could make if the season tickets needed to be fulfilled to ITSO?

There's no journey in mind here whatsoever - the thought just came to me that we talk about split tickets for single/return journeys a lot, but season tickets are rarely discussed!

Thanks in advance for your replies!

1. Sometimes.
2. Difficult to say, probably slightly less so.
3. Not necessarily - there can be variations in the way seasons are priced against daily tickets and variations in the way daily tickets are priced.
4. As above.
5. With regular seasons, yes, but not with flexi-seasons because of the way they work. You can hold up to 5 tickets on an ITSO card at any given time, so in the unlikely event of having that many seasons loaded you would only be able to renew after they had each expired.

 

[Watershed]

Appreciate people might not want to share examples as season tickets can be expensive, but just had a couple of questions:

1. Are split season tickets (i.e. season tickets A-B and B-C for an A-C journey) ever value for money (cheaper than an A-C season)?

Yes, sometimes. Usually it would be because you are taking advantage of cheaper fares that are only available for part of your journey, e.g. most point to point season tickets within the London Zones are very reasonably priced, as are certain TOC only season tickets.

1. If there are examples, are these as commonplace as split tickets for single/return journeys?

I think they're much less commonplace than with single/return journeys and it's a lot harder to find out about such splits. However, I did develop some software which found season ticket splits, so if you have a commute you'd like to know about, I can do a search.

1. If a split combination is value for money for a single/return journey, does this mean the equivalent seasons are also value for money?

There is no guarantee of this. Season tickets can be priced at wildly varying multiples of a return ticket - ranging from less than 1x to more than 5x. Sometimes directional pricing can also play a part in this, e.g. a particular split might be great value for a single/return journey because you're making use of a cheap contra-peak fare, but the season ticket is poor value because it has to be priced based on the more expensive peak-direction fare.

1. Conversely, are there examples where splitting season tickets is value for money, but this isn't the case for a simple single/return journey?

Absolutely. For example, one oft-quoted split is out towards Kent - e.g. Sevenoaks to London Terminals is £98.70 a week for a through season but £82.90 if you split at New Cross. However, there's no worthwhile split when buying single or return tickets.

1. Could you load multiple 'split' season tickets onto the same ITSO smartcard? Is there a limit as to how many 'splits' you could make if the season tickets needed to be fulfilled to ITSO?

There's no journey in mind here whatsoever - the thought just came to me that we talk about split tickets for single/return journeys a lot, but season tickets are rarely discussed!

Thanks in advance for your replies!

Yes. You can have a maximum of 5 tickets on an ITSO smartcard at once. That total includes both season and single/return tickets.

 

[[.n]]

Appreciate people might not want to share examples as season tickets can be expensive, but just had a couple of questions:

1. Are split season tickets (i.e. season tickets A-B and B-C for an A-C journey) ever value for money (cheaper than an A-C season)?
2. If there are examples, are these as commonplace as split tickets for single/return journeys?
3. If a split combination is value for money for a single/return journey, does this mean the equivalent seasons are also value for money?
4. Conversely, are there examples where splitting season tickets is value for money, but this isn't the case for a simple single/return journey?
5. Could you load multiple 'split' season tickets onto the same ITSO smartcard? Is there a limit as to how many 'splits' you could make if the season tickets needed to be fulfilled to ITSO?

There's no journey in mind here whatsoever - the thought just came to me that we talk about split tickets for single/return journeys a lot, but season tickets are rarely discussed!

Thanks in advance for your replies!

Yes absolutely, I used to use them all the time - it gave me far greater "coverage" of the rail network than I strictly needed - in fact I even discovered a variant where 3 season tickets was a better option for me. The only (teeny tiny) downside was remembering which ticket to show where asked depending on which part of the journey you were on
The useful upside is it meant that you also got more than one Gold Card, so could make more use of of the £10 offer for other railcards as well!

 

[Birmingham]

Am aware of a flow whereby the same split of a single/return ticket and of a season ticket is a substantial saving. A season split also affords more flexibility as the train needn’t stop there.

 

[DailyCommuter]

I use two Flexi Seasons on the same Smartcard, no problem loading or activating via the National Rail Smartcard Manager app.

On this route, splitting on Anytime return tickets and Flexi Season had a saving, whereas Off-Peak returns and normal seasons didn't. The advantage of the Flexi Season Vs daily tickets is that I'm not limited to services calling at the change over station.

 

[Puffing Devil]

Am aware of a flow whereby the same split of a single/return ticket and of a season ticket is a substantial saving. A season split also affords more flexibility as the train needn’t stop there.

Yes - I used to commute to London 2-3 days weekly and it was substantially cheaper to use a weekly season topped-up with a return ticket on the days I needed to travel. 5 days and it was break even on a regular ST.

 

[Birmingham]

Yes - I used to commute to London 2-3 days weekly and it was substantially cheaper to use a weekly season topped-up with a return ticket on the days I needed to travel. 5 days and it was break even on a regular ST.

I just meant a flow where you’d split at the same station with a season ticket as you would with a single/return journey, but a split of each type of ticket together is another good point!