Extortionate season tickets £££

[A S Leib]

the Bahncard 100 gives unlimited travel in the entire country, including high speed trains and city transport.

Plus 100 included seat reservations, which is worth €300+ depending on where you would normally buy them, but without (to my knowledge) the complimentary food you'd get on longer-distance XC, GWR, EMR and especially Avanti, LNER and TPE routes.

 

[johncrossley]

Other countries offer unlimited travel tickets for a few thousand pounds.

For example, the Netherlands "Altijd Vrij" costs EUR 375.70 per month.
The Swiss GA card costs CHF 3,995 per year, less than £4,000, and this includes all urban and regional transport in the whole of Switzerland.

I hope Ben includes comparisons with other countries in the Telegraph article.

 

[JonathanH]

Other countries offer unlimited travel tickets for a few thousand pounds.

Other countries are smaller and have completely different commuter patterns. There are other aspects of the cost of living that are different as well.

 

[EuxtonNeutral]

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

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

Ben your paper has consistently demonised the railways and deplored the use of general taxation to subsidise public goods, such as getting people to work in an affordable and environmentally-friendly manner. Well you can’t have it both ways. The result of that viewpoint is that we have the highest rail fares in Europe and people are perversely disincentivised from using the railway.

 

[johncrossley]

Other countries are smaller and have completely different commuter patterns. There are other aspects of the cost of living that are different as well.

That can be taken into account if desired. For example, look at season ticket prices in other parts of the country outside London.

 

[AlterEgo]

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.

Quite.

The normalisation of extremely high season ticket prices is absurd; the discount is against a horrifically expensive product which nobody thinks is good value on here. A lot of disingenuous posting going on just because the OP is from the Telegraph. What now - we are defending up to £8500 a year to go from Milton Keynes to London for work?

 

[redreni]

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 targeted subsidy to support jobs, you could argue.

You could also argue the Anytime Day Return is overpriced. (Not that journey compared to others in GB, particularly, but compared with much of Europe the price per mile is quite expensive).

 

[Starmill]

There are a huge number of 8 day "Flexi" Seasons that are an outrageous rip off no matter what method you use to calculate their 'value'. If you don't use all 8 days within four weeks, you lose all of the money you paid for them.

Thornaby - York 8 days for £431.20 (!!!!!!)
Didcot Parkway - Swindon 8 days for £328.40
Peterborough - Cambridge 8 days for £198.40
Huddersfield - Manchester 8 days for £191.80
Stoke-on-Trent - Manchester 8 days for £180.00
Burton-on-Trent - Birmingham 8 days for £161.40
Stroud - Swindon 8 days for £165.60
Doncaster - Leeds 8 days for £149.10
Newport - Bristol Temple Meads 8 days for £147.20
Yate - Gloucester 8 days for £131.20
Horsforth - Harrogate 8 days for £75.20

The following are especially outrageous because of the infrequent service offered, including at office working times:

Northallerton - Newcastle 8 days for £331.80 (!!)
Spalding - Peterborough 8 days for £91.20
Northwich - Knutsford 8 days for £65.60

No doubt there'll be a few people out there defending the indefensible but these fall pretty firmly into the indefensible category. This isn't by any means approaching exhaustive it's just the ones I happen to know.

 

[johncrossley]

Another thing that some other countries do better is the ability to write off the train fare to tax. For example, Liege to Brussels is about 100 km and the regular season ticket is EUR 3,064 per year (which is already quite cheap). But if the employer pays for it, it only costs EUR 2,451.

 

[startingaparty]

The cost of season tickets is penalising low earners who can't afford to live in the city centres where they work. I have to live a 40 minute train journey away and commute every day or pay an extra £750+ a month to live in the city centre where I work. It's demoralising to say the least.

Those who can afford city rents (which have soared past £1,000+ a month even for modest flats) save both time and money on transport. If you earn less, you end up paying more in both money and hours.

It's not exactly improving as the price goes up: overcrowded at peak times, delays, and infrastructure that’s barely improved despite years of “Northern Powerhouse Rail” promises.

 

[Cell2025]

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

Tell me more! I must visit this amazing place.

(Suppose it depends on what you count as 'decent').

You also have to add tax and insurance, parking, repairs and fuel to compare travel by private car with rail.

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

Another thing that some other countries do better is the ability to write off the train fare to tax. For example, Liege to Brussels is about 100 km and the regular season ticket is EUR 3,064 per year (which is already quite cheap). But if the employer pays for it, it only costs EUR 2,451.

Do they pay for it in full or via salary sacrifice or similar as many can do here (until November 23rd)?

 

[johncrossley]

Do they pay for it in full or via salary sacrifice or similar as many can do here (until November 23rd)?

Not sure how it works. I just put Liege to Brussels in the SNCB website and it says this:

"For 4 or more days a week
Standard Season Ticket 12 months

• Unlimited travel for a period of 12 months on the chosen route. 2nd class
• On MoBIB card
• Can be combined with bus/tram/metro/parking

AVAILABLE PARTICIPATION SCHEMES

FREE FOR YOUR EMPLOYEE
Your contribution is € 2.451,00
Employee's contribution is € 0,00
Government contribution is € 613,00

LEGAL MINIMUM
Your contribution is € 2.178,00
Employee's contribution is € 886,00
Government contribution is € 0,00

As an employer, you are required to cover either part or all of the subscription cost, depending on the intervention scheme you have selected or are subject to.

Employers in the private sector must contribute an average of 71.1% toward the cost of second-class train Season Tickets. The remaining balance is the responsibility of the employee."

 

[Andrew1395]

Hopefully my season ticket won’t go up as much as the print edition of the telegraph from £2.80 to £3.50 or 25%!

 

[Tetchytyke]

Other countries are smaller

Germany isn’t smaller. In fact, Germany is quite a lot bigger.

Season ticket prices in the south east are absolutely extortionate. An annual Hemel to London Z1-6 Travelcard is over £6,000. Over £6,000 for a 23-mile train ride. £6,000!

It’s not so bad in the north, £2,700 for an annual Halifax to Manchester season.

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

Do they pay for it in full or via salary sacrifice or similar as many can do here (until November 23rd)?

You can’t buy a season ticket through salary sacrifice. Salary sacrifice is where you pay for something from your wages and the payment you make reduces your taxable income. Childcare vouchers used to be the obvious one.

Some employers will offer employer loans for a season ticket- mine did in London- but that’s not the same thing at all.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Germany isn’t smaller. In fact, Germany is quite a lot bigger.

Germany is a large country but because the long distance commuting you get in the UK doesn't exist (as the big cities are more distributed and house prices are less silly) you don't need to price quite as high as very few people will use the BahnCard 100 to daily commute.

In the UK there are people who would, given that ticket at that price, commute from Manchester or Bristol to London. Whereas the idea of commuting five days a week from Koeln to Frankfurt would have a German rolling on the floor laughing into their Bier.

 

[telstarbox]

I would start with looking at the number of annual tickets sold in 2019 before COVID, and then the most recent year available. Find it hard to believe office juniors are shelling out 10k pa for travel.

 

[EuxtonNeutral]

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.

Yeah but the equivalent of bahncard100 would also get you to Penzance/Aberdeen whenever you want etc?

 

[Bletchleyite]

I would start with looking at the number of annual tickets sold in 2019 before COVID, and then the most recent year available. Find it hard to believe office juniors are shelling out 10k pa for travel.

Office juniors are more likely to flat share and live in London. It's middle income people who are more likely to commute.

 

[cactustwirly]

Germany is a large country but because the long distance commuting you get in the UK doesn't exist (as the big cities are more distributed and house prices are less silly) you don't need to price quite as high as very few people will use the BahnCard 100 to daily commute.

In the UK there are people who would, given that ticket at that price, commute from Manchester or Bristol to London. Whereas the idea of commuting five days a week from Koeln to Frankfurt would have a German rolling on the floor laughing into their Bier.

Cologne to Frankfurt is only an hour by ICE.
I can't believe there isn't some commuting, especially as Frankfurt is the financial capital of Germany

 

[Bletchleyite]

Cologne to Frankfurt is only an hour by ICE.
I can't believe there isn't some commuting, especially as Frankfurt is the financial capital of Germany

I'm sure there will be some, but it's likely nowhere near the levels you get within an hour of London.

Though to be fair Rugby to London is about an hour and it isn't that much of a commuter land. Prices might have more influence than pure journey time.

 

[redreni]

I'm sure there will be some, but it's likely nowhere near the levels you get within an hour of London.

Though to be fair Rugby to London is about an hour and it isn't that much of a commuter land. Prices might have more influence than pure journey time.

I agree it's about cost, and also reliability.

If I lived next to Rugby railway station then my door-to-door commute time would be similar to what my current commute (Z6 to Z1) was before the Elizabeth Line opened. But, of course, there were many alternative routes I could take in the event of disruption, so there was enough resilience to make the commute sensible. How are you supposed to get to Rugby in any sort of reasonable timescale if the WCML is heavily disrupted or closed?

 

[Hadders]

I would start with looking at the number of annual tickets sold in 2019 before COVID, and then the most recent year available. Find it hard to believe office juniors are shelling out 10k pa for travel.

An office junior is likely to be under 30 and will therefore benefit from using a 16-25 or 26-30 Railcard.

This has the benefit of giving a larger discount than a season ticket normally gives
They can 'pay as they go' by purchasing daily tickets rather than having to shell out in one lump sum.

This benefit of railcards is often overlooked when people say railcard t&cs should be simplified.

 

[Bletchleyite]

I agree it's about cost, and also reliability.

If I lived next to Rugby railway station then my door-to-door commute time would be similar to what my current commute (Z6 to Z1) was before the Elizabeth Line opened. But, of course, there were many alternative routes I could take in the event of disruption, so there was enough resilience to make the commute sensible. How are you supposed to get to Rugby in any sort of reasonable timescale if the WCML is heavily disrupted or closed?

To be fair there aren't sensible alternative routes to most of the south WCML. You just wait it out.

 

[A S Leib]

Germany is a large country but because the long distance commuting you get in the UK doesn't exist (as the big cities are more distributed and house prices are less silly) you don't need to price quite as high as very few people will use the BahnCard 100 to daily commute.

In the UK there are people who would, given that ticket at that price, commute from Manchester or Bristol to London. Whereas the idea of commuting five days a week from Koeln to Frankfurt would have a German rolling on the floor laughing into their Bier.

I wonder how much long-distance cross-border commuting there is, although from Germany, there aren't that many cities I can think of where the higher salary might justify the cost and time of the commute. Brussels, Strasbourg, Basel, Zürich or Amsterdam, depending on the job? Luxembourg, with the benefit of spending relatively little on commuting?

 

[TUC]

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

It is not a lifestyle decision. If you want to have a senior job in business, or one influencing government policy, why should you have to live in London to do so? Your argument would exclude people from many smaller towns from such roles and make the UK even more Lindon-centric. Who wants that?

 

[styles]

I'd have to run the numbers again, but when I was last commuting daily by rail, Beeston to Derby, it was cheaper for me to just get monthly season tickets September to June, then use my 16-25 Railcard to buy day returns in July and August when the £12 minimum fare didn't apply.

Somebody with a 16-25 or 26-30 Railcard where the discounted fare would be £12 (or actually just below £12) would be better off using their Railcard than getting a season ticket in many cases.

Somebody living in the Southeast leaving after 10am may find a Network Railcard used on daily tickets may be cheaper than a season ticket.

Season tickets usually provide good value, but these 'quirks' irritate me, and is my main gripe with GB rail ticketing. Railcards with minimum fares for 10 months of the year before 9:30am, Railcards with minimum fares for 12 months of the year before 9:30am, Railcards not valid at all before 10am except some local route easements where they're valid from some specific time between 08:23 and 09:59, rovers, GroupSave, TOC-specific group discounts, rangers, regional Railcards, SuperFares, ScotRail Kids For A Quid, Club Avanti, LNER cashback, the fact that mature students can get a 16-25 railcard, Scotland NEC, Unizones, GTR money back guarantee, XC feeless Advance ticket changes, PlusBus, Nothern Duo, gold cards, RailMaster, Rail & Sail, flexipasses, GA pregnant passenger first class upgrades, SeatFrog, carnets, season tickets annual/monthly/weekly, etc etc.

Finding the cheapest ticket for a journey shouldn't require this PhD level of knowledge about the ticketing system. When season tickets are more expensive than buying a return ticket with a Railcard every day, I think the system is broken.

I actually broke the ticket machine when I tried this as well. I bought online ~20 sets of day returns with a Railcard. It printed a dozen or so sets then the printer said 'Out of Order'. Because it was all on one booking reference, I then had to wander over to the ticket office, hand over the printed tickets, and they tore them up and started printing the whole set of ~20 return tickets again. The queue of people which had formed behind me at the ticket machine were not impressed.

 

[Tester]

Well, Ben, welcome to the forum

 

[deltic]

I was devastated about the last season ticket fare increase as I had to let the second under footman go. Coupled with VAT on little Freddie's school fees and increases in minimum wages for staff, I'm seriously thinking about having to convert one of the staff cottages to an AirBnB although how I'll live that down at the Club I'll never know.

Life is hard in the upper echelons these days it's not all caviar and champagne you know.

 

[Falcon1200]

An annual Hemel to London Z1-6 Travelcard is over £6,000. Over £6,000 for a 23-mile train ride. £6,000!

But it is not £6000 for a, ie one, 23-mile train ride - It is £6000 for, potentially (but obviously not in reality) for, also not a 23-mile train ride but a 46-mile round trip, on 365 days of the year. For someone working a 5-day week with 5 weeks Annual Leave per year, they would be travelling on 235 days. £6000 divided by 235 is 25.53, which does not seen an excessive, or indeed extortionate, daily price for 46 miles of rail travel, although £6000 is a lot to stump up in one go.

 

[cactustwirly]

Tell me more! I must visit this amazing place.

(Suppose it depends on what you count as 'decent').

You also have to add tax and insurance, parking, repairs and fuel to compare travel by private car with rail.

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


Do they pay for it in full or via salary sacrifice or similar as many can do here (until November 23rd)?

Well it's a sunk cost, the next year it is unlikely to cost another 6,000 to run etc. After a couple of years it would have paid for itself