London to Colchester Town with Underground leg

[3rd rail land]

I'm travelling from a Zone 2 London Underground station to Colchester Town and back tomorrow, 19th September 2026. I was planning to get the 12:30 train from London Liverpool Street and return on either the 2135, 21:44 or 22:07 out of Colchester Town.

Is there a single ticket I can get that includes the underground legs or do I need to use PAYG on the Underground and a separate ticket for the National Rail part of the journey? I hold a disabled persons railcard which is loaded onto my Oyster card.

I don't want to use advances as I am not sure which train I will get back to London and the savings are not significant enough to tie myself to a specific return train.

A quick search on Trainsplit suggests I can get a London Underground and DLR Zones 1-2 -> Colchester or Colchester Town Super Off-Peak Day Return at £29.60 but that it is marginally more expensive than using PAYG on the Underground legs.

 

[bb21]

Origin Zone U2* LONDN is £24.80 for Super Off-Peak if you can use the Underground to Stratford and change there, and avoiding Zone 1 completely, but without knowing your origin I don't know if that will be suitable for you.

 

[3rd rail land]

I would need to go through Zone 1 to get to Liverpool Street or Stratford. No way to avoid this unless I used buses but that would add a huge amount of time so not sensible.

 

[Watershed]

In that case the Underground Zones 1-2 ticket suggested by TrainSplit will likely be your cheapest option.

 

[3rd rail land]

In that case the Underground Zones 1-2 ticket suggested by TrainSplit will likely be your cheapest option.

Not quite. Using Oyster to Liverpool Street then a super off-peak comes out to £29.05. Only 55p in it though.

I wanted to check I hadn't been silly and missed something obvious as I've never bought a ticket to/from an LU Zone before and it turns out I hadn't.

Thanks for the help everyone.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

I wanted to check I hadn't been silly and missed something obvious as I've never bought a ticket to/from an LU Zone before and it turns out I hadn't.

Take it that there's nothing cheaper by booking a Super Off Peak Day Return from Stratford (London) to Colchester / Colchester Town (= £22.00 with railcard discount) plus whatever it costs to get from the Zone 2 origin LU station to/from Stratford (London)? (Presume you'd then need to be on a train that calls at Stratford).

 

[Watershed]

Not quite. Using Oyster to Liverpool Street then a super off-peak comes out to £29.05. Only 55p in it though.

I wanted to check I hadn't been silly and missed something obvious as I've never bought a ticket to/from an LU Zone before and it turns out I hadn't.

Thanks for the help everyone.

Ah, ok, I meant in terms of a through ticket. If you're open to splitting then using Oyster to Stratford would be cheaper, indeed using Oyster to Romford would be even cheaper. All depends on your preferences on the number of changes and journey time vs cost.

Splitting at Stratford is probably the most feasible option timewise since all but one of the hourly Norwich services stops there, on the way to/from Colchester. There's yellow readers on the platform to allow you to easily start or finish your Oyster journey.

 

[3rd rail land]

Its about the same time if I stay on the Central Line to Stratford and overall its a little cheaper so I'll probably do that. I'm not going to faff about changing at Romford.