Extortionate season tickets £££

[benedictjsmith]

Hi all,

I'm a journalist on the Telegraph Money desk and I'm writing a story about the rise of season ticket prices.

I wondered if anyone was keen to share their experience of rising fares and how it may have affected your personal finances?

Obviously keen to chat to those facing five-figure season tickets, but also anyone who has simply had to reassess their travel arrangements as a result of inflated prices.

Feel free to drop me an email or respond on this thread - my email is benedict.smith@telegraph.co.uk

Many thanks,
Ben

 

[chrisjo]

Glad to see you've come to the forum with an open mind on the subject.

 

[benedictjsmith]

Glad to see you've come to the forum with an open mind on the subject.

Haha - well they haven't gone down have they...

 

[JonathanH]

Season tickets are a large down-payment but are actually often essentially "cheap" for the amount of travel they provide. If someone wants to write a story about expensive train fares it would be better to focus on the anytime prices for an out and back journey to work, or the discount inherent on the flexi-season.

Someone paying £6,000 a year for one year's unlimited travel pays once and forgets about it. Someone paying £70 each time they travel to work is making a different decision.

 

[jfollows]

Season tickets offer enormous discounts over daily anytime tickets, provided the season tickets are used frequently enough. The issue seems to be that people don’t use them as often now, working from home some of the time. So the discounts no longer seem enormous, and the prices of both season tickets and daily tickets have gone up comparably.
Not that anyone probably buys them, but a Manchester-London annual season ticket costs <£100 per day if used for 200 days, allowing travel on any train over many routes.

 

[The exile]

Season tickets are a large down-payment but are actually often essentially "cheap" for the amount of travel they provide. If someone wants to write a story about expensive train fares it would be better to focus on the anytime prices for an out and back journey to work, or the discount inherent on the flexi-season.

Someone paying £6,000 a year for one year's unlimited travel pays once and forgets about it. Someone paying £70 each time they travel to work is making a different decision.

Or even better, concentrating on why this country steadfastly refuses to recognise the importance of well (and reliably) funded public services - but as it’s the Telegraph there’s not much hence if that.

 

[Bletchleyite]

If I wanted to write an article on expensive train fares I would be looking at long distance Anytime fares (most notably London to Manchester) and the LNER fare increase trial myself. Season tickets aren't the worst of it by any means.

 

[JonathanH]

The issue seems to be that people don’t use them as often now, working from home some of the time.

The comfort of an extra day of commuting not having a marginal cost is still valuable though.

 

[skyhigh]

There is potentially a story in people who partly work from home getting shafted by poor value flexi-seasons that only offer tiny discounts, but season tickets generally offer good savings against daily tickets. Yes, there's a big headline price but actual travel is good value.

 

[D Mylchreest]

People are often, too often, making a lifestyle decision to live many miles away from where they work. This entails them paying eye watering sums for their travel but as the tickets are subsidised their lifestyle choice is also subsidised out of taxation and by taxpayers who couldn't even begin to conceive the commuter's lifestyle.
Personally I think that these subsidies should be withdrawn for commuters who live outside the metropolitan areas into which they travel

 

[John R]

Haha - well they haven't gone down have they...

Perhaps you might like to research the amount they went up under the last Conservative administration, which insisted on RPI+1% increases?
Or might that not be in line with editorial policy?

 

[800001]

If I wanted to write an article on expensive train fares I would be looking at long distance Anytime fares (most notably London to Manchester) and the LNER fare increase trial myself. Season tickets aren't the worst of it by any means.

100% this! How LNER by supposedly making things simpler, have in fact made it dearer for people by removing off peak tickets.

 

[Bletchleyite]

There is potentially a story in people who partly work from home getting shafted by poor value flexi-seasons that only offer tiny discounts, but season tickets generally offer good savings against daily tickets. Yes, there's a big headline price but actual travel is good value.

That's true. In many if not most medium distance cases, a flexi season day costs more than an Anytime Day Single in and an appropriate single discounted with a Network Railcard home.

 

[John R]

100% this! How LNER by supposedly making things simpler, have in fact made it dearer for people by removing off peak tickets.

And much more complex. And less flexible.

 

[kristiang85]

Not that anyone probably buys them, but a Manchester-London annual season ticket costs <£100 per day if used for 200 days, allowing travel on any train over many routes.

You make it sound attractive, but then you compare to the Bahncard 100 in Germany which is a quarter of the cost and gets you access to all routes in the country.

However, saying that, everytime I travel on German rail it is horribly overcrowded, so maybe their approach isn't the panacea...

 

[benedictjsmith]

Perhaps you might like to research the amount they went up under the last Conservative administration, which insisted on RPI+1% increases?
Or might that not be in line with editorial policy?

I will absolutely be looking at this given Labour has only been in power since May last year.

 

[miami]

Season tickets are a massive subsidy to regular commuters, who tend to be the highest earners.

Someone travelling from Southampton to London 5 days a week 45 weeks a year pays £33 a return journey or 20p a mile

Someone travelling the same journey once a week pays £111 per return journey, or 70p a mile.

 

[bakerstreet]

Welcome @benedictjsmith

Seeing as there is a national newspaper journalist here looking to tell a rail story about rising fares, is it worthwhile to also brief this new member on the forum’s widespread (although possibly not universal) concerns over the LNER fares project?

And the fear that this might be rolled out across the entire long-distance network.

Essentially the DfT:

- has removed all flexible off peak fares from some LNER journeys as part of a trial.
- by doing so it has also removed the price cap on the price of off peak journeys, thereby allowing fares to be significantly increased.
- has introduced additional route restrictions on the routes passengers can take
- has - at the same time - pushed more passengers to more restrictive Advance / Advance flex tickets, which themselves have increased in cost because of the removal of the price cap.
As the price of advance fares change based on demand or the market, these fare rises don’t really feature in the annual March fares increase news cycle.

I’ve seen posters wanting this story to be told more widely, perhaps this is the opportunity you’ve been waiting for.

On top of this, there is a new national rail conditions of travel about to come into force.
This significantly reduces passenger rights and could increase the numbers of passengers being presented with penalty fares.

 

[JonathanH]

- as the price of advance fares change based on demand or the market, these fare rises don’t really feature in the annual March fares increase news cycle.

Indeed, yesterday's announcements include this:

By moving away from a rigid annual change process, GBR will be able to manage its fares more strategically. Rather than simply increasing fares by a set amount each year, GBR will be able to design a system that more accurately reflects how the network is being used, as long as it operates within an agreed commercial envelope over a given financial period.

The new system will also be flexible to accommodate different approaches to fares depending on market, in line with the direction of fares reform. For example, commuters are likely to need stronger reassurance and certainty around price than more discretionary leisure travellers who can be more flexible about when they travel to get the best possible deal.

 

[A S Leib]

People are often, too often, making a lifestyle decision to live many miles away from where they work

I think it's more frequently the case that people are priced out of living as close to their jobs as they would like to reside.

 

[Tetchytyke]

Season tickets are a massive subsidy to regular commuters, who tend to be the highest earners.

A discount for buying in bulk and paying in full upfront isn't a subsidy.

 

[Cell2025]

Perhaps you might like to research the amount they went up under the last Conservative administration, which insisted on RPI+1% increases?
Or might that not be in line with editorial policy?

The paper regularly criticises and criticised previous administrations' decisions. Surprisingly so, IMO.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 6 Nov 2025 ==

Season tickets are a massive subsidy to regular commuters, who tend to be the highest earners.

Someone travelling from Southampton to London 5 days a week 45 weeks a year pays £33 a return journey or 20p a mile

Someone travelling the same journey once a week pays £111 per return journey, or 70p a mile.

A season ticket at my club (currently in the Premier League) costs me the equivalent of £33.50 a game compared to match by match prices around £55.

 

[CyrusWuff]

Perhaps you might like to research the amount they went up under the last Conservative administration, which insisted on RPI+1% increases?
Or might that not be in line with editorial policy?

As a point of order, RPI+1% was originally brought in for the January 2004 increase (and for the first three years of domestic services on HS1, Southeastern could increase their regulated fares by RPI + 3%.) It was changed to flat RPI for the January 2014 increase.

 

[johncrossley]

The only fair way is to judge this is to see how much they charge for annual season tickets in other countries. For example, is the Bahncard 100 cheaper or more expensive than a season ticket from Basingstoke to London?

 

[NorthOxonian]

The only fair way is to judge this is to see how much they charge for annual season tickets in other countries. For example, is the Bahncard 100 cheaper or more expensive than a season ticket from Basingstoke to London?

It's slightly but not vastly dearer. That season ticket works out at just under £6,000 (more like £7,000 if you want a travelcard too); the BahnCard 100 is €4,899 which works out as £4,300.

For another example - a comparable American commute would be Stamford, CT into New York City (similar distance and duration). I don't believe they offer annual season tickets but twelve monthly ones will set you back $4,017 (or roughly £3,000). Again, not entirely different from our season ticket fares but definitely noticeably cheaper.

 

[cactustwirly]

Season tickets are a large down-payment but are actually often essentially "cheap" for the amount of travel they provide. If someone wants to write a story about expensive train fares it would be better to focus on the anytime prices for an out and back journey to work, or the discount inherent on the flexi-season.

Someone paying £6,000 a year for one year's unlimited travel pays once and forgets about it. Someone paying £70 each time they travel to work is making a different decision.

I wouldn't call £6000 a year "cheap"
You can buy a decent car for that

 

[Amaranthe]

I wonder if the OP's interest in this has been prompted by social media posts in the last day or so that highlight a £20,000 Annual Season Ticket?

The caveat being that the Season Ticket in question is for Swansea to London. Can't imagine many (if any) would be commuting that distance daily?

 

[swt_passenger]

Season fares to London from what you’d call longer distance locations such as Southampton are claimed by many users to be high, but if travelling everyday they’re equivalent to only about 40% of the Anytime return cost. There’s no ‘one size fits all’ ratio between seasons and daily fares, in many cases it’s the latter that seems to be getting out of control…

 

[Watershed]

Season fares to London from what you’d call longer distance locations such as Southampton are claimed by many users to be high, but if travelling everyday they’re equivalent to only about 40% of the Anytime return cost. There’s no ‘one size fits all’ ratio between seasons and daily fares, in many cases it’s the latter that seems to be getting out of control…

Indeed. A 60% discount vs Anytime fares is great - the problem comes when the underlying Anytime fares are horrendously expensive, as is the case for most longer journeys.

 

[johncrossley]

It's slightly but not vastly dearer. That season ticket works out at just under £6,000 (more like £7,000 if you want a travelcard too); the BahnCard 100 is €4,899 which works out as £4,300.

So nearly 50% more, yet the Bahncard 100 gives unlimited travel in the entire country, including high speed trains and city transport.