Barrow to liverpool weekly travel

[Charro1990]

Hi, everyone,

I’am posting looking for advice on whether this journey is viable for me.

Currently needing to move up to barrow in Furness soon with my partner and young baby.

I’ve been looking for a job over the last year but it’s becoming increasingly difficult so I’m looking into commuting into liverpool twice a week as I’am currently hybrid working and don’t mind the travel if it’s only twice a week.

My issue here is the cost.

I do two consecutive days in the office, which means my travel will be £50 a day, £400 a month.

This isn’t viable for me.

Does anyone have any advice on ways to make this cheaper?

I’ve looked into rail cards, flexi tickets etc but there’s real lack of options from what I can see.

Any advice is appreciated.

Thanks all.

 

[Fawkes Cat]

Hi, everyone,

I’am posting looking for advice on whether this journey is viable for me.

Currently needing to move up to barrow in Furness soon with my partner and young baby.

I’ve been looking for a job over the last year but it’s becoming increasingly difficult so I’m looking into commuting into liverpool twice a week as I’am currently hybrid working and don’t mind the travel if it’s only twice a week.

My issue here is the cost.

I do two consecutive days in the office, which means my travel will be £50 a day, £400 a month.

This isn’t viable for me.

Does anyone have any advice on ways to make this cheaper?

I’ve looked into rail cards, flexi tickets etc but there’s real lack of options from what I can see.

Any advice is appreciated.

Thanks all.

Welcome to the forum.

I'd suggest you look at a what a ticket splitting site can do. https://tickets.railforums.co.uk/ pays a commission to this forum if you buy tickets through it. Using that, and 'advance' tickets (so they're only valid on the specific train shown - make sure you get to the station on time!) I can see a possibility of around £40 for Barrow and back.

Also look at railcards: if you're any of

- under 30
- over 60
- someone with certain disabilities
- a full time student (I appreciate that's unlikely to be you if you're working full time)
- a military veteran

then there may be a railcard that might help you.

We also often suggest that for people doing more than one day in the office it might be worth staying overnight to save the cost of the commute home in between. But looking at booking.com for an arbitrary date about a month away (22 April) single rooms don't seem to cost much less than the train fare (e.g. 'Liverpool 5.4 miles from centre: Budget Single Room, 1 single bed: £30'), and as you are with your partner and child I can see why being away overnight might not be what you want to do. Also, I can well imagine overnight prices going up and down in line with midweek football matches, which may make planning difficult. But as you are showing yourself as from Liverpool, maybe there are friends or relations you could stay with overnight?

While Liverpool may be the job market you know best, other parts of the Northwest may be accessible as well: Manchester by train seems to take 2 to 2.5 hours each way (although the fares seem a little higher) so if you're not currently in a job that could be worth looking at.