Waterloo to West Byfleet return every day...railcard?

[faringdon]

Hi,
I will be commuting from Ilford to West Byfleet every weekday morning at about 7am, returning about 17:30hrs.
I am 54 years old.
I have an oyster card.
I presume the cheapest route is to go from Ilford to Waterloo on the underground (Elizabeth line and Northern line)
...Then to go on South Western Railways from Waterloo to West Byfleet.

I can use my oyster to get to Waterloo.

Then is there a railcard i can get to get cheaper fayre from Waterloo to West Byfleet? (return)

 

[andrew749]

Unfortunately you'd be travelling too early to use a Network Railcard.
I think you'd be better off using Oyster or contactless to Surbiton, then touching out and using a season ticket for Surbiton to West Byfleet.

 

[Haywain]

Unfortunately you'd be travelling too early to use a Network Railcard.
I think you'd be better off using Oyster or contactless to Surbiton, then touching out and using a season ticket for Surbiton to West Byfleet.

Although that means changing trains at Surbiton.

 

[faringdon]

Thanks, do you know how late i'd have to travel to be able to use a network railcard.
In any case, i thought you could buy a weekly railcard, whatever time you travel?
One of those things where you give them a photo and they put it on a card, and then every monday, you use it to buy 5 tickets (for the week) and get something like 10% off the weeks travel?

 

[simonw]

Thanks, do you know how late i'd have to travel to be able to use a network railcard.
In any case, i thought you could buy a weekly railcard, whatever time you travel?
One of those things where you give them a photo and they put it on a card, and then every monday, you use it to buy 5 tickets (for the week) and get something like 10% off the weeks travel?

You can buy weekly season tickets, or monthly or annual ones. They don't come as separate tickets.

If you are travelling to West Byfleet, you might want to look at buying a season to Woking and then traveling to Woking and then catching one station back to West Byfleet as it may work out a lot quicker as West Byfleet trains are shoppers whereas most Woking trains are fast nonstop. You'd have to check the timetable, but I think you may well have time this way.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Thanks, do you know how late i'd have to travel to be able to use a network railcard.

Network railcard discounts are usually only available for travel commencing at or after 10 a.m. (Mon-Fri).

 

[Starmill]

You can buy weekly season tickets, or monthly or annual ones. They don't come as separate tickets.

If you are travelling to West Byfleet, you might want to look at buying a season to Woking and then traveling to Woking and then catching one station back to West Byfleet as it may work out a lot quicker as West Byfleet trains are shoppers whereas most Woking trains are fast nonstop. You'd have to check the timetable, but I think you may well have time this way.

There's 2tph of semi-fast trains to West Byfleet, it's the Alton services.

 

[Haywain]

In any case, i thought you could buy a weekly railcard, whatever time you travel?

To be clear, a railcard is a card bought for a year, or sometimes 3, that will get a discount off tickets purchased. This is not the same as a season ticket which is what you would buy to cover a week of travel with one ticket and which usually makes a saving over buying tickets one day at a time.

 

[Starmill]

In addition the OP should note that there may be a small number of peak services which do not even stop at Surbiton e.g. the 1755 from London Waterloo. This might not come up though for the "reverse" commute on this part of the journey.

 

[Fawkes Cat]

This is one of the times when the funny language the railway uses isn't helpful.

A 'railcard' is something that you buy and then you can get a discount on any train tickets - as long as you meet the rules.

Unfortunately, the rules for almost all Railcards say that you can't buy discounted tickets for travel in the morning peak. I think there is an exception for the Disabled Persons' Railcard - but one of the conditions for being allowed to buy that is that you should have a disability.

A ticket that lets you do as many journeys as you want between two given stations is called a 'season ticket '. That, I think is what you have in mind when you say

One of those things where you give them a photo and they put it on a card, and then every monday, you use it to buy 5 tickets (for the week) and get something like 10% off the weeks travel?

but the way they work is that you pay for the whole thing upfront instead of buying a discounted ticket each day - which means that you don't have to queue up to buy a new ticket every day.

Experts should be along shortly with more good ideas on how to minimise the cost and hassle of your journey. It might help them if you can tell them how long you expect to have to be making this trip (one week? A month? A year? Every day for the rest of your life?).

 

[Watershed]

Hi,
I will be commuting from Ilford to West Byfleet every weekday morning at about 7am, returning about 17:30hrs.
I am 54 years old.
I have an oyster card.
I presume the cheapest route is to go from Ilford to Waterloo on the underground (Elizabeth line and Northern line)
...Then to go on South Western Railways from Waterloo to West Byfleet.

I can use my oyster to get to Waterloo.

Then is there a railcard i can get to get cheaper fayre from Waterloo to West Byfleet? (return)

The only Railcards that you would eligible for, unless you have a qualifying disability (the threshold may not be as high as you think), are a veteran or are travelling together with someone else, would be a Network Railcard or an Annual Gold Card.

The latter is a "freebie" you get for buying an annual season ticket to/from/within the Golf Card area (i.e. the southeast plus a bit more) - the cheapest qualifying season is Hatton to Lapworth for £184 a year.

Neither a Network Railcard nor Annual Gold Card would be of use on the outward journey, as there is a time restriction meaning they cannot be used to discount tickets before 10am and 09:30am on weekdays, respectively. Network Railcard discounted fares additionally have a minimum fare of £13 on weekdays.

In terms of season tickets, your cheapest option would likely be to buy a West Byfleet to London Zones 1-6 Travelcard - this would cost £104.90 a week. There is a slight discount for buying a monthly season (£402.90) and a bigger one for buying a yearly season (£4196).

Being a Travelcard, this would be valid on all National Rail (including London Overground/Elizabeth Line, but excluding the Heathrow Express and Southeastern High Speed services) Underground, DLR, tram and bus services within Zones 1-6. So it would give you total flexibility on your route and avoid you having to pay extra for any journeys into London on the weekend/evening.

I have seen that there's a slightly cheaper, if slightly impractical option. This would involve using Oyster from Ilford to Surbiton - avoiding Zone 1 via Canada Water (touching the pink reader there, or at Whitechapel). You would use a season ticket from Surbiton to West Byfleet. You would have an Annual Gold Card applied to your Oyster so as to provide a discount on the return journey.

This would add up to £83.10 a week, plus £184 a year for the Annual Gold Card. This isn't a huge saving, and it's poor value for money when you consider the much longer journey time - and requirement to step back a train at Surbiton in each direction in order to exit and re-enter the barriers to touch in/out your Oyster.

 

[30907]

In terms of season tickets, your cheapest option would likely be to buy a West Byfleet to London Zones 1-6 Travelcard - this would cost £104.90 a week. There is a slight discount for buying a monthly season (£402.90) and a bigger one for buying a yearly season (£4196).

You have to specify West Byfleet as your destination, but it can be issued at any National Rail station in the Zones (or indeed outside them). ISTR you need a photochromic.

Being a Travelcard, this would be valid on all National Rail, Underground, tram and bus services (except the Heathrow Express and Southeastern High Speed services) within the Zones, so would give you total flexibility on your route.

... and any other journey you choose to make within the Zones, any time and day while it is valid.

 

[faringdon]

Thanks, i have an oyster. So as you kindly imply above, to avoid off/on' ing at surbiton, it seems best to just use oyster for ilford to waterloo....then a weekly season ticket for waterloo__byfleet&NewHaw (return). Sorry...its actually Byfleet_&_new_haw im going to, not west byfleet......they gave me an address of west byfleet but its not.

Though as you kindly say, that must be compared with the option of a season ticket from ilford to byfleet_and_new_haw return.

I must admit i dont wish to go via canada water as it makes it longer.
I may be travelling for several months...the monthly season ticket didnt seem much cheaper.

 

[Watershed]

Thanks, i have an oyster. So as you kindly imply above, to avoid off/on' ing at surbiton, it seems best to just use oyster for ilford to waterloo....then a weekly season ticket for waterloo__byfleet&NewHaw (return). Sorry...its actually Byfleet_&_new_haw im going to, not west byfleet......they gave me an address of west byfleet but its not.

Though as you kindly say, that must be compared with the option of a season ticket from ilford to byfleet_and_new_haw return.

I must admit i dont wish to go via canada water as it makes it longer.
I may be travelling for several months...the monthly season ticket didnt seem much cheaper.

If you are travelling every weekday, a Byfleet & New Haw to Zones 1-6 Travelcard (£102.10/week) will be cheaper than using Oyster to Waterloo and a season ticket from there to Byfleet (£123.10/week).

You can also buy a Travelcard to Zones 2-6, which is £87.20 a week, but as you say, this means a notably longer journey time.

A monthly season on its own doesn't offer a huge saving compared to a weekly season - it's 3.84× the cost for, on average, 4.33× the validity.

But you can also get 'custom length' season tickets for any duration between a month and a year. So you could buy a season ticket for a month and a few days, so as to cover 5 weeks' travel. The saving comes from the fact that the couple of extra days are charged pro-rata, and you avoid paying for 1 weekend's worth of travel a month. Of course, if you would use the Travelcard element to get around London on the weekend, that's probably of little use to you.