Brighton to Cambridge

[claire123]

Hi I'm looking for some advice on season tickets. I live in Brighton and have accepted a job I'm Cambridge, starting next week and I will be commuting for the next 12 months.

I will be traveling back and forth 3 times a week (monday to friday), leaving for Cambridge at around 7 am and returning 4/5pm, and so would like to purchase a season ticket through my new companies loan system. There are direct regular trains (Thameslink) however I can't seem to find an option when typing in the stations on any of the season ticket calculators (National rail, Thameslink or Trainline). I asked at the counter in Brighton station but they also couldn't find it and didn't understand why. I was wondering if anyone here could shed some light on it - thanks in advance.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Not sure if a weekly (or longer period) season ticket is actually available for Brighton to/from Cambridge. So, might a suitable split season ticket be possible instead?

Noted that an Anytime Day Return from Brighton to Cambridge is £80.90 for just one there-and-back day trip.

 

[Royston Vasey]

Would a season really be worth it anyway, for only three returns a week, once holidays and any work travel etc are accounted for?

 

[bspahh]

You can get a Flexi Season ticket from Brighton to Stevenage for £406.80, and another from Stevenage to Cambridge for £131.90. The Flexi Season ticket is a Smart-only product, valid for 8 days of travel in 28 days — any time between two stations, so it would work out at £67.34 each day.

 

[Hadders]

There isn't a season ticket between Cambridge and Brighton. Generally speaking there aren't any season tickets that 'cross London'.

There are a number of options you could consider:

- A combination of season tickets. For example an annual Cambridge to London Terminals Annual Season is £6,212 and London Thameslink to Brighton Annual Seaon costing £4,976. This combination isn't valid to travel on the Underground.
- A custom season ticket between Cambridge and Brighton which would have validity in London Zones 1-6. The price for an annual would be £11,724 which if I remember correctly is priced as the sum of a Cambridge to London Zones 1-6 Annual Travelcard and Brighton to London Zones 1-6 Annual Travelcard less the price of an inboundary ZOnes 1-6 Annual Travelcard. Perhaps one of our members who works in a ticket office could confirm if this is correct and how easy it is to obtain a custom season
- Purchase daily tickets costing £80.90 for an Anytime Day Return. 3 return tickets for 46 weeks would cost over £11,000.

Do you qualify for any railcards? If you qualify for a 16-25, 26-30 or Disabled Railcard then this would reduce the cost of a daily Anytime Day Return to £53.35.

There might be some cheaper combinations or other options that others are aware of.

Finally, Brighton to Cambridge is one hell of a commute - are you really sure about what you're letting yourself in for?

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 6 Jun 2024 ==

You can get a Flexi Season ticket from Brighton to Stevenage for £406.80, and another from Stevenage to Cambridge for £131.90. The Flexi Season ticket is a Smart-only product, valid for 8 days of travel in 28 days — any time between two stations, so it would work out at £67.34 each day.

That's a good spot!

 

[Gaelan]

You can get a Flexi Season ticket from Brighton to Stevenage for £406.80, and another from Stevenage to Cambridge for £131.90. The Flexi Season ticket is a Smart-only product, valid for 8 days of travel in 28 days — any time between two stations, so it would work out at £67.34 each day.

How would this work in practice? Is it possible to hold two flexi seasons on the same smartcard, or would OP need to hold (and tap in with) two cards?

 

[infobleep]

Do you qualify for any railcards? If you qualify for a 16-25, 26-30 or Disabled Railcard then this would reduce the cost of a daily Anytime Day Return to £53.35.

There might be some cheaper combinations or other options that others are aware of.

Finally, Brighton to Cambridge is one hell of a commute - are you really sure about what you're letting yourself in for?

What about an annual season ticket

There is another cheaper option, if you don't qualify for rail card discounts.

An annual Brighton to New Barnet [Thameslink only] season ticket is £5420. Combine this with an annual New Barnet to Cambridge [Not valid for travel via (changing trains or passing through) London Terminals] season ticket at £5076.

This works out at a daily rate of £33.77+£32.56, if tarvelling 3 days a week, which in total is £66.33

As they are season tickets your train doesn't need to stop at New Barnet. Traija from Brighton dont but this won't matter. You would be restricted to only using Thameslink services from Brighton to New Barnet*.

However, you would also qualify for a Gold Card, giving you a 1/3 rail services with no minimum fare after 9:30 am Monday to Friday and you could travel into London or anywhere along the permitted routes, as often as you liked on any day of the week. Also you can buy one other discounted railcard for someone else or even yourself, if useful, for £10.

*There is a view, which I support, that you can use any Govia Thameslink Railway service with a Thameslink only ticket but I didn't wish to complicate matters by mentioning it at this point.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 6 Jun 2024 ==

.Finally, Brighton to Cambridge is one hell of a commute - are you really sure about what you're letting yourself in for?

Checking for this Friday ans getting the 07:09, it takes 2 hours 32 minutes. One arrives at 09:41.

16:53 return takes 2 hours 28 minutes and you get home 19:21.

For that long journey you can sit in declassified first class though. Always at the back of the train on a class 700.

 

[Wallsendmag]

How would this work in practice? Is it possible to hold two flexi seasons on the same smartcard, or would OP need to hold (and tap in with) two cards?

I would need to be two cards

 

[Haywain]

How would this work in practice? Is it possible to hold two flexi seasons on the same smartcard, or would OP need to hold (and tap in with) two cards?

Two cards, but could be activated with a mobile phone.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 6 Jun 2024 ==

- A custom season ticket between Cambridge and Brighton which would have validity in London Zones 1-6. The price for an annual would be £11,724 which if I remember correctly is priced as the sum of a Cambridge to London Zones 1-6 Annual Travelcard and Brighton to London Zones 1-6 Annual Travelcard less the price of an inboundary ZOnes 1-6 Annual Travelcard. Perhaps one of our members who works in a ticket office could confirm if this is correct and how easy it is to obtain a custom season

That's correct. As with many things, it may depend on the experience and/or willingness of the staff.

 

[Magdalia]

I live in Brighton and have accepted a job I'm Cambridge, starting next week and I will be commuting for the next 12 months.

Finally, Brighton to Cambridge is one hell of a commute - are you really sure about what you're letting yourself in for?

I leave the ticketing question to the experts, but, as someone who commuted for more than 25 years, this does sound very ambitious.

A few other points you need to consider:

• it takes time to get between your home and Brighton station, and between Cambridge station and your place of work. Bear in mind that traffic congestion in Cambridge is notoriously bad, and needs to be factored in unless this part of the journey is by walking or cycling.
• 2 hours 30 minutes each way is a very long time to be sitting on a train. Think about what doing that repeatedly does to your physical and mental health, especially your back.
• the train service does not work perfectly every day, there will be days when you need a plan B to complete your journey, and that might take a lot longer than 2 hours 30 minutes. Travelling 3 days per week I suggest that you prepare yourself for that happening about once per month.

 

[arb]

Just an observation that although journey planners will tell you the fastest way of doing Brighton to Cambridge is via Thameslink, you can do it just as quickly by taking the fast Southern (Brighton to Victoria) and fast Great Northern (Kings Cross to Cambridge), e.g. depart Brighton 07:02, arrive Victoria 08:11, depart Kings Cross 08:42, arrive Cambridge 09:30, which is still approx 2.5 hours. The 30 minute connection across London is perfectly possible once you know your way around the tube system to get from Victoria to Kings Cross, but journey planners will assume you need longer and therefore say that you have to get the 09:12 from Kings Cross, making the total journey time 3 hours, so they will prefer to show you the 2.5 hour Thameslink train.

So this option doesn't really gain you any time. And it won't be any cheaper. And changing in London is more hassle than the direct train. I only mention it because it might add some variety/interest to the journey. Also sometimes you can find that e.g. Thameslink is completely disrupted but Great Northern (to/from Kings Cross) is still running fine. Not always, but sometimes. It's worth checking this if there is disruption on Thameslink.

EDIT: For clarification, you need ticket(s) that cover the underground to be able do this. One of the suggestions up-thread was two tickets, Cambridge to London Terminals, and Brighton to London Thameslink. That particular combination wouldn't let you use the tube.

 

[MikeWM]

So this option doesn't really gain you any time. And it won't be any cheaper. And changing in London is more hassle than the direct train. I only mention it because it might add some variety/interest to the journey.

...and you won't have to sit on a 700 for 2.5hours each way either, which some people (myself included) would see as a huge advantage!

Conversely, it is a great shame that TfL made accessing the Victoria line at Victoria so much more difficult than it used to be, that walk would be tedious to have to do every day.

 

[Bradford PA]

I leave the ticketing question to the experts, but, as someone who commuted for more than 25 years, this does sound very ambitious.

A few other points you need to consider:

• it takes time to get between your home and Brighton station, and between Cambridge station and your place of work. Bear in mind that traffic congestion in Cambridge is notoriously bad, and needs to be factored in unless this part of the journey is by walking or cycling.
• 2 hours 30 minutes each way is a very long time to be sitting on a train. Think about what doing that repeatedly does to your physical and mental health, especially your back.
• the train service does not work perfectly every day, there will be days when you need a plan B to complete your journey, and that might take a lot longer than 2 hours 30 minutes. Travelling 3 days per week I suggest that you prepare yourself for that happening about once per month.

I commuted from Luton to Guildford on a daily basis for four years. The season ticket combination as outlined by Hadders is correct ie: one with Zones 1-6 Travelcard, plus one minus this. As Haywain suggests, not all staff have the knowledge and enthusiasm to set the ticket up and I had to use friends in the industry to obtain quotes upon renewal to present to my company (for one year only this would not affect you). Go down to Brighton station well before you need to, as a misquoted figure for such an annual card can be very costly. The other issue is that if the card fails at the barriers and requires replacement, as mine did after extensive use, you also need to find a competent member of staff to issue a replacement. Luckily, I got to know the appropriate staff to go to at Luton for this.

The points that Magdalia makes are important. Such travel can be very tiring, both physically and psychologically. I was fortunate in that I had a partner who worked at the halfway point in London. Several times per week we would meet after work in London for food, shopping, entertainment or just a catch-up drink. We would obviously get home later in the evenings after this but it certainly took the stress out of the day. After my partner gave up this work towards the end of the four years, I found it much more difficult to cope with the solo travelling and soon changed jobs to a shorter commute myself. You will get to appreciate your two "rest" days - I found myself using up annual leave days at short notice due to general fatigue.

One bonus is the range of travel opportunities presented by the areas covered by the season ticket and the Goldcard discount. I journeyed extensively at weekends and holidays for leisure purposes. The fares from the boundary of Zone 6 to other parts of the country, thus avoiding paying Via London, were often remarkably cheap and I would strongly recommend taking advantage of this.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

@claire123. Just a thought. Could some of the weekday workdays in Cambridge be scheduled on consecutive days, e.g. Monday and Tuesday, or Thursday and Friday, with overnight accommodation being taken in the Cambridge area, as appropriate, in order to avoid schlepping back to Brighton and then back again to Cambridge the following day? N.B. We had a similar thread recently from someone wanting to work in Central London but travelling from Liverpool on a regular basis.

Help needed for liverpool to london euston

I am looking into jobs in London. However, I live in Liverpool and therefore need to commute. Would people advise I take a railcard to cut costs? I will be expected to be in office twice a week but the days are not fixed. Any advice to help with costs would be appreciated.

www.railforums.co.uk

 

[Haywain]

Could some of the weekday workdays in Cambridge be scheduled on consecutive days, e.g. Monday and Tuesday, or Thursday and Friday, with overnight accommodation being taken in the Cambridge area, as appropriate, in order to avoid schlepping back to Brighton and then back again to Cambridge the following day?

Having also undertaken a long distance commute for a few years, the downside of this is that by the time a hotel and meals have been paid for it doesn't result in a saving, and while not travelling may be more relaxing a hotel room is no substitute for your own home.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Having also undertaken a long distance commute for a few years, the downside of this is that by the time a hotel and meals have been paid for it doesn't result in a saving, and while not travelling may be more relaxing a hotel room is no substitute for your own home.

Indeed. It's very much a trade off between one and the other. Unlikely to be much of a ££ saving, either way.

 

[MrJeeves]

Conversely, it is a great shame that TfL made accessing the Victoria line at Victoria so much more difficult than it used to be, that walk would be tedious to have to do every day.

Go to the westbound Circle & District platform, then follow signs to Victoria line to skip the long walk

 

[MikeWM]

Go to the westbound Circle & District platform, then follow signs to Victoria line to skip the long walk

I do but it is still quite a bit further than before.

(Same trick works at Kings Cross for Vic and Picc if the old ticket hall has been set to exit only, though fortunately that is a fairly rare occurence, unlike the 'by design' changes at Victoria).