St. Neots to London

[warp]

Hi, I'm looking for some advice on commuting from St. Neots to London, around Tottenham Court Road / Oxford Circus underground stations. I expect to travel in 3 times per week.

I thought that an annual rail ticket to Farringdon, then pay-as-you-go oyster on Elizabeth line to Tottenham Court Road may be the nicest journey. It would also give me options to Finsbury Park + Victoria line to Oxford Circus. And, if I understand the ticket restrictions correctly, I could also travel on Great Northern services to into Kings Cross and break my journey there as opposed to continuing on to Farringdon through a change to St Pancras. Likewise on the return.

Another option would be an annual ticket to London Terminals that would let me use Thameslink & Great Northern, and change at either Kings Cross/St. Pancras or Finsbury Park to the Victoria line until Oxford Circus; this also seems to have an option to include Cambridge routes for a small fee. Finally, there's St. Neots to London Zone 1-6, but I'm not sure if that would require a paper ticket, whereas the others would be a combination of smart cards + oyster.

Any thoughts on these or something else that I've not considered are greatly appreciated, thanks!

 

[Hadders]

Do you qualify for any railcards eg 16-25 or 26-30?

Annual ticket from St Neots to London Terminals costs £6,052. A Flexi-season ticket 8 days in 28 costs £345.10
Additional validity via Cambridge costs £6,096 for an annual. The Flexi-season version of this costs £350.70
This ticket is only valid as far as Kings Cross/St Pancras/Moorgate/Liverpool Street (via the WAML if you have the Cambridge version). To continue to Oxford Circus or Tottenham Court Road you'd have to alight so you could touch in using Oyster or contactless which is fine if changing at Finsbury Park, St Pancras or Kings Cross but not great if you want to travel via Farringdon. The fastest way is to change to the Victoria Line at Finsbury Park as it takes only 9 minutes - you'd not even be at Farringdon by that time and that's without factoring time to touch in. There are a handful of peak time trains that don't call at Finsbury Park but otherwise everything else calls there.

Annual ticket from St Neots to London Thameslink costs £6,372. A Flexi-season 8 in 28 days costs £359.10
There's no Cambridge option with this ticket but it is valid via Thameslink to Kings Cross, St Pancras, Farringdon, City Thameslink, Blackfriars, London Bridge and Elephant & Castle.
With this ticket it would be easier to travel via Farringdon as you could switch to Oyster/contactless there without needing to leave the station.

A St Neots to London Zones 1-6 Travelcard costs £7,664 for an annual. There is no Flexi-season option.
Validity via Cambridge costs the same price.
This is the most flexible (although most expensive) option as it gives you the flexibility to use any train, underground or bus in Zones 1-6 (there are a couple of exclusions but we don't need to worry about them here).

All of the season tickets would be issued as a smartcard (The Key) although I'm not sure if a ticket including validity via Cambridge would be on The Key as it isn't accepted at Cambridge (perhaps another forum member knows).

All of this said, once you factor in the cost of Underground travel if you aren't using a Travelcard (£2.80 each way from Kings Cross or Farringdon, £3.60 from Finsbury Park - assuming peak times), you might be better off using daily tickets which cost:

£49.30 - Anytime Day Return to London Terminals
£51.30 - Anytime Day Return to London thameslink
£61.00 - Anytime St Neots to London Zones 1-6 Travelcard (this is poor value - it'd be cheaper to buy a ticket to London Terminals/Thameslink and use Oyster/contactless)

 

[Haywain]

All of the season tickets would be issued as a smartcard (The Key) although I'm not sure if a ticket including validity via Cambridge would be on The Key as it isn't accepted at Cambridge (perhaps another forum member knows).

All of the tickets listed could be loaded to any (non-Scotrail) TOC smartcard, although this will depend on where they are purchased.

 

[kieron]

I'll assume that you usually travel at peak times on weekdays. Your options may be different if not. A couple of thoughts:

1. The simplest ticket for your journey would probably be an anytime day return from St Neots to London Underground/DLR Zone 1. This costs £55.30, and is not (as far as I know) available on a smartcard.

It would let you go to Tottenham Court Road or Oxford Circus, leaving Thameslink at Finsbury Park, St Pancras or Farringdon stations. It would also let you use the West Anglia line between Hertford East and London (but not Stansted or Cambridge), and use the Victoria Line going south from Tottenham Hale or Seven Sisters.

It's valid on sections of London Underground outside zone 1 because it's valid on the railway there, and there are some parts of the rail network where rail tickets are valid on nearby sections of London Underground.

2. Buying flexi-seasons is likely to be cheaper for you per day than an annual season at today's prices, much less buying day returns. There are a couple of things to bear in mind.

A flexi-season is only worth buying if you expect to travel on at least 8 days in the following 4 weeks. If you have a holiday planned, day returns may be a cheaper option in the run up to it.

Prices are due to go up in March, but no indication has been given of how large this rise will be. An annual season ticket bought in February would be at today's prices, which may mean that it works out a bit cheaper to buy one then rather than to buy flexi-seasons at next year's prices.

 

[bspahh]

Anytime Day Returns are a bit cheaper if you split at Sandy (£5.40 for St Neots to Sandy, £35.70 for Sandy to Zone 1/2 for a total of £41.40), or Stevenage (£13.80 for St Neots to Stevenage, £33.10 for Stevenage to Zone 1/2 for a total of £46.90).

If you split at Sandy, you can't use the Great Northern trains, only the Thameslink ones.

 

[kieron]

You can use either brand of train if you buy a flexi-season rather than a return, though, as that allows you to catch trains which pass non-stop through the station where you change from one ticket to the next. I wrote a bit more about the subject in this post.

Flexi-season St Neots-Welham Green £153.50 for 8 days
Flexi-season Welham Green-Oakleigh Park £58.90 for 8 days
Anytime day return Oakleigh Park-London Underground Zones 1-4 £14.80 per day
Total: £41.35/day

For an extra 40p, you could buy a zone 1-4 travelcard instead of the day return.

You would need to activate both flexi-seasons before leaving St Neots (or, at least, activate the first one there, and the second one before your train leaves Hatfield).

 

[warp]

Thanks for the all insightful advice! I ended up going with an annual season + flexi season split due to the way my work reimburses travel this year.

In the future, I'll be within walking distance of Kings Cross, but I think from what I've learned here, something like a flexi + flexi (St. Neots - Welham Green - London Terminals) would be reasonable, only using a daily split ticket via Stevenage when necessary. As I wouldn't require underground for this, I would just use oyster/contactless as needed.