Clapham Junction - Newbury

[ctom_s]

Hi,

I'm looking to travel with my partner from Clapham Junction to Newbury on 10/10 leaving about 17:30 (though flexible within reason) and back on the 12/10 at about 12:00 (again flexible within reason). We have a two together railcard.

I did a quick search for these dates on the forum ticket engine and it seems like a) this is coming up to around £60 and b) advance singles don't seem available. Is it just too soon and some aren't released yet or is this not an "advance single" route.

We are very flexible on routing. Happy to go via Paddington, Basingstoke, slow line to Reading and happy to use contactless if that helps save money. So basically just looking for the cheapest options really (assuming it doesn't add on more than an hour over the standard route). It seems even Reading to Newbury there's no advance tickets and that would be £25 alone.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Benjwri]

GWR tend to stick to the more classic definition of advanced only being available on long journeys. What they do offer tends to be fairly close to the normal price.

It seems they offer Advances on their own services, but this remains more expensive than the route taking SWR from Reading to Clapham, which doesn’t offer advances, because you also have to pay for the journey back out to Clapham from Paddington.

 

[jfollows]

I know you’re looking for advance tickets, but if you end up otherwise the “any permitted” is valid via London or Ascot, then there’s a cheaper READING NOT LOND which is only valid via Ascot. £30.95 off peak return each with the latter.

 

[alistairlees]

Advance singles from Paddington are available for £14.00 before railcard discounts on those dates / at those times. You just have to get yourself to Paddington.

 

[Benjwri]

Unfortunately in terms of saving money I’m not sure you’ll find anything better than £56.80 for two Off-Peak Returns, routed Reading not London.

For Newbury to Paddington there are no advance quotas defined where the price would be low enough to beat this ticket, once you count the £5ish per person, per way, cost of getting to Clapham from Paddington.

 

[ctom_s]

ok fantastic quick responses guys, I think Alistair nailed it and if I just searched for singles from Paddington to Newbury, then Newbury to Paddington separately all the advance singles and options came up. I picked up first class tickets both ways for £45 total for the pair of us!

 

[Watershed]

Glad to hear it. For what it's worth, it's cheaper to get to Paddington using the Overground and Underground (e.g. changing at West Brompton or Willesden Junction) than taking National Rail to Victoria/Waterloo and then changing to the Underground.

£2.90 vs £5.10 p/p each way with Oyster/contactless PAYG, if touching in at off-peak times (09:30 or later heading towards Paddington, or 09:30-16:00 / 19:00 onwards leaving Paddington) or £3.50 vs £5.90 p/p at peak times.

 

[ctom_s]

Thanks watershed, I had no idea the underground fare difference was that large we'll definitely do that.

I do find that particularly odd as I'm not avoiding zone 1, why is it so much cheaper?

 

[Watershed]

Thanks watershed, I had no idea the underground fare difference was that large we'll definitely do that.

I do find that particularly odd as I'm not avoiding zone 1, why is it so much cheaper?

Basically the fares for PAYG within London aren't just calculated based on the number of zones you pass through, it's also based on the 'fare scale' charged on the routes you use. TfL services like the Overground and Underground are charged at a lower rate than National Rail services for most routes (though there are exceptions). There's a useful blog post here which explains it in more detail.

Mixing National Rail and Underground services is the most expensive of all as you pay the mixed mode 'tax' - effectively, you are paying a higher, combined fare that usually costs nearly the same as the sum of each part (NR/LU) of your journey. This is because before the days of PAYG travel, you would have bought a separate ticket to London Terminals (or wherever) and then an Underground ticket. To avoid either party losing money when PAYG was introduced, the agreement was that a higher fare would be charged for journeys mixing the two modes.

The daily and weekly caps limit the impact of this to a certain degree (especially if you regularly mix National Rail & Underground services) but it is generally still cheaper to stick to one mode or the other, and to use TfL services where you have a choice. As always, the best thing to do if you're unsure is to check the TfL single fare finder - this will tell you exactly what the fares are for every possible route. Make sure you enter the right station for places like Paddington that have both NR & LU stations. The 'default' fare is the one that gets charged you don't meet the conditions for any of the other fares; for this journey it basically means "any route that doesn't involve changing between NR & LU at London Terminals".