Most expensive ticket you've bought or sold

[ess]

There's some amazing annual season ticket prices. What's the most you've ever done in one transaction?

 

[quarella]

For me there were several annual First Class Bristol Temple Meads - All Zones. which I think was around £8k-£9k when I last sold one about 11 years ago.
I do remember that the 0615 - 1339 booking office shift would usually clear my annual basic pay every day Monday - Friday.

 

[grid56126]

No idea of the cost, but I issued a guy with a repeat (His tenth) first class Annual between Kings Cross and York back in 1984. I still have the one he surrendered somewhere. He said he did an average two / three trips a week over the course of the year but saved a fortune with the season and doubtless had some serious Deltic mileage!

 

[Lockwood]

I was told that a season only pays for itself if you do just over 5 return journeys a week (Gold cards notwithstanding)

Guess there's a distance thing involved as well (that statement was for a fairly short distance)

 

[LowLevel]

The most expensive I've bought is a first class 7 day all line rover a couple of years ago for £700 or so.

The most expensive I sold was an anytime return to London Terminals weighing in at £180+ which I suspect will be small fry but not bad for a local train guard!

 

[SPADTrap]

Just seen a £325w Stockport - Potters Bar anytime return.

 

[Starmill]

Just seen a £325w Stockport - Potters Bar anytime return.

There is an unbelievable differential for that journey! The Off-Peak Return (both +Any Permitted) is only £82.40!

 

[user15681]

I regularly buy £450 monthly seasons. I've seen people renewing annuals around the £4500 mark.

 

[dzug2]

I was told that a season only pays for itself if you do just over 5 return journeys a week (Gold cards notwithstanding)

Guess there's a distance thing involved as well (that statement was for a fairly short distance)

I thought it was about 4 journeys - and would be less for longer term seasons

 

[Greenback]

I thought it was about 4 journeys - and would be less for longer term seasons

It seems to vary quite a lot. The Llanelli - Swansea 7D season used to be worth getting for three trips in a week!

 

[button_boxer]

I thought it was about 4 journeys - and would be less for longer term seasons

It depends entirely on the route, and longer distance seasons are likely to pay for themselves in fewer journeys. For example, the any permitted anytime return from Stoke on Trent to London Terminals is £267, the equivalent 7 day season is £327.80 (or £339.10 with travelcard), so worth getting if you are making more than one trip in the same week at peak times.

The "base rate" for monthly and longer seasons is £265.30 (£280.80 with travelcard) so if you make just one trip a week every week then the season would work out cheaper than the Anytime fares, though I suspect many people in this situation would be able to plan ahead and do it cheaper on Advances.

(source: BRFares)

 

[craigwilson]

I was told that a season only pays for itself if you do just over 5 return journeys a week (Gold cards notwithstanding)

Guess there's a distance thing involved as well (that statement was for a fairly short distance)

Yeah. I note that for most of the short-distance seasons I've bought, the multiplier (to get you from the cost of the Anytime Day ticket to the weekly season, after which everything usually multiplies by the same factor) is about 3.8 or so, whereas for middle distances (e.g. east Kent stations to London) it worked about 2.2.

When you get even longer distance it makes even more sense to buy seasons if you're making more than a single weekly journey - the weekly season for Manchester Stations - London Terminals is only £21.10 more expensive than the Anytime Return!

 

[Hadders]

On some routes a 7 day season ticket is cheaper than one anytime return!

Milton Keynes Central-Manchester:

SOR £209.00
7DS £208.50

 

[hairyhandedfool]

I don't tend to keep a track of this sort of thing, but I think the most expensive I sold was about £4k, I had a couple pay for seasons of around £1k with cash though, those would have been about a decade ago.

I was told that a season only pays for itself if you do just over 5 return journeys a week (Gold cards notwithstanding)

Guess there's a distance thing involved as well (that statement was for a fairly short distance)

I thought it was about 4 journeys - and would be less for longer term seasons

'commuter distance' seasons tend to be around four peak time returns per week, some less, some more, it really does vary quite a bit. However, some season tickets, which tend to be priced by 'Intercity' operators, use 'market based' pricing, which means the cost could be less than one peak time return per week.

For example:

Manchester to London Terminals -

One Anytime Return: £321.00
One Month: £1,313.70
One Year: £13,684

A month ticket used for four return journeys costs £328.43 per return, for 22 returns a month, each trip costs just £59.71. A yearly used once a week costs £263.15 per trip, but goes to £57.01 a day for 240 days use.

 

[thedbdiboy]

No idea of the cost, but I issued a guy with a repeat (His tenth) first class Annual between Kings Cross and York back in 1984. I still have the one he surrendered somewhere. He said he did an average two / three trips a week over the course of the year but saved a fortune with the season and doubtless had some serious Deltic mileage!

Back in the 1980s, long distance Seasons were seriously discounted in relation to the normal fare. The growth in long distance commuting in the late 1980s saw some hefty increases applied by Intercity to these journeys, so York - London will be less of a bargain now.

 

[Flamingo]

On one occasion I had six middle-eastern gents wanting to buy First Class singles from Paddington to Swansea, they paid cash as well! It was about £800 as far as I can remember, it was a few years ago (pre-commission days, unfortunately!).

 

[Starmill]

On some routes a 7 day season ticket is cheaper than one anytime return!

Milton Keynes Central-Manchester:

SOR £209.00
7DS £208.50

Greatkingrat had some revelations about the other end of the scale in the thread 'Poor value seasons'.

Surrey seems to be a magnet for extremely poor value season tickets.

Godalming - Hook, SDR £8.30, 7DS £86.70 (x10.4)
Witley - North Camp, SDR £6.50, 7DS £56.40 (x8.7)
Haslemere - Camberley, SDR £10.30, 7DS £88.10 (x8.5)
Woking - Hook, SDR £8.20, 7DS £66.70 (x8.1)

 

[Sheepy1209]

There is an unbelievable differential for that journey! The Off-Peak Return (both +Any Permitted) is only £82.40!

That's normal for north-west to London - e.g. Preston/Euston is £84.80 vs £332.00. It's often cheaper to travel off-peak and stay overnight.

 

[Deerfold]

Back in the 1980s, long distance Seasons were seriously discounted in relation to the normal fare. The growth in long distance commuting in the late 1980s saw some hefty increases applied by Intercity to these journeys, so York - London will be less of a bargain now.

A YRK to London annual season ticket is 53.1 times the cost of an anytime return, so easily worth it for 2 journeys a week in the peak.

 

[SamS]

The most expensive I've bought is a 7 day first class season from Poppleton (same price as York) to Sheffield which is £142.70.

An any time first class return is £67 so after 2 days (or 4 journeys) it's paid for itself. This week I will be making 12 journeys (There and Back Mon - Sat) so the cost is only £11.89 per journey.

 

[cambsy]

Have never used a season ticket, so would like to know if they can be used like a rover, i.e. do couple returns in a day or is each journey recorded so can only do one return each day?

 

[yorkie]

Have never used a season ticket, so would like to know if they can be used like a rover, i.e. do couple returns in a day or is each journey recorded so can only do one return each day?

5.4 Season Tickets

....A season ticket offers the holderunlimited travel between the origin and the destination during its period of validity. A season ticket also offers the holder unlimited travel to/from any intermediate station along any permitted route between the origin and the destination. ....

 

[Evvy73]

My annual season ticket is currently £3916.00 - it'll be over £4k when I have to renew in August.

I worked out, even taking into account Bank Holidays, Weekends, my holiday allowance, etc, etc that if I travel (on average) more than two days a week (which unsurprisingly I easily do!) then it works out cheaper than just "paying as I go".

 

[TheEdge]

The biggest ticket I've ever sold was a first class Great Yarmouth - Aberdeen peak return with a senior railcard, currently that is £289.75, although this was before the last fare change.

 

[westv]

A YRK to London annual season ticket is 53.1 times the cost of an anytime return, so easily worth it for 2 journeys a week in the peak.

I wonder if many people have a season ticket for two journeys a week. I find AP tickets far cheaper but I do have to have a spreadsheet to keep track of them all!

 

[Matt Taylor]

Portsmouth to Oban anytime return (warrant), £461.00.

It was only a few weeks ago, but oddly it was at around 5am on a Saturday morning. That was a great start to the shift!


Portsmouth-London Terminals weekly is £119.80, am Anytime Day Return is £68.20, travel more than once a week and it's cheaper to get a weekly. The ratio between the SDR and a Gold Card is only 70.26!

 

[grid56126]

Have never used a season ticket, so would like to know if they can be used like a rover, i.e. do couple returns in a day or is each journey recorded so can only do one return each day?

Yes as someone else has posted, Seasons are available for unlimited travel.

As an example, a person who lives in Cambridge and likes class 317s and 365s enough to count them for mileage can only make one return trip to the travelcard boundary on a one day travelcard and obviously at a high price in the peaks. A 7 day season would allow that person to travel up and down all day long for all seven days on the Cambridge Cruisers, in the peak, out of the peak and go home for a quick shower in the 4 hour break between London trains overnight.

I quote this example as I know somebody who, whilst not quite as desperate as my description, did do a whole week a few years back. Of course add in some clever routing and you can have a field day, albeit a bit "samey". Add in a First Class operator like East Coast and you can bash class 91's with (I am guessing here) Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner included free of charge?

 

[Harpers Tate]

Back in the late 1970s, I paid exactly £3000 for one round trip from Hull to London on a Saturday. I think I may have the ticket somewhere, still. It was issued on handwritten paper stock.

I chartered the Hull Pullman set.

 

[Clip]

Plenty of large seasons come through our offices at the beginning of the year. But does reissuing an ATOC card count too

 

[TheEdge]

Portsmouth to Oban anytime return (warrant), £461.00

A couple of months ago I went through the 0525 Lowestoft - Ipswich. First table I come to, two Lowestoft - Exeter St David's warrants, one Lowestoft - Paignton warrant. Just over £547.