Peterborough to Twickenham

[KPeanut70]

Hi all I am considering a job in Twickenham and I live in Peterborough. I have looked at fares and it's quite expensive are there any cheaper options and best routes I can take as I need to include the travel card zones 1-6 in the price. I need to be at Peterborough station by 7.15am. Thank you

 

[Hadders]

Welcome to the forum.

This one's not going to be cheap. In summary there are two travelcard season tickets you can consider:

Any Permitted £8,120 per annum - can be used on Virgin and Great Northern services between Peterborough and Kings Cross

Great Northern Only £7,592 per annum - canonly be used on the slower great Northern services between Peterborough and Kings Cross.

Both of these tickets have the same validity within the London Zones 1-6. Others will be able to advise on whether there are any suitable splitting points but nothing springs to mind unless you only need to travel 3 or 4 times a week.

It'salso worth bearing in mind that if you go for the Great Northern option and your train calls at Finsbury Park (not all of the peak services do) then alight there and take the Victoria Line to Vauxhall and pick up a train to Twickenham from there - far less walking than interchanging at Kings Cross and Waterloo (plus you have to change from the Victoria Line to the Bakerloo if taking the Underground from Kings Cross to Waterloo)

 

[NSE]

As someone with a slightly similar situation, I'd recommend using the GN services for the Finsbury Park connection. The walk is substantially shorter and, as a regular user of GN services, the amount of times a Virgin service shoots past us as we stop at Finsbury Park and then we overtake it back as it is held on the approach to KGX, you'll save plenty of time going direct to Vauxhall. Plenty of trains to Twickers from there. There are cheaper ways of doing it, by avoiding Zone 1 and going via Highbury and Islington to Richmond, but it's gonna take a lot longer.

 

[KPeanut70]

Hi Hadders and NSE thank you so much for your replies it's staggering how much this costs a year!!! I was debating the Finsbury Park route but some of the trains from Peterborough don't stop there.

You mentioned Hadders if your doing this journey 4 times which is what I would be doing as I would be in London one day a week anyway is there another option then please?? Thank you both

 

[NSE]

If you're able to stay over some nights, which is closer to my scenario, you then can buy an off peak return and use Oyster to float around London to your hearts content during the days you are there. I find it's most cost effective for me to have an off-peak national rail ticket from Cambridgeshire (I use a few different stations) to somewhere in Z1-6 (either London terminals, where I work or where I stay, depending on if I'm going straight to work or via my accomodation) and then I float around on Oyster (contactless would work but I have a 16-25 so I have my railcard attached to my Oyster) and when I go home I use the return portion of my national rail ticket. As I work shifts, if I start anytime other than first thing in the morning, I will often use a slower route to avoid Z1 and save myself a few pennies on my Oyster.

 

[Hadders]

I know I looked at this for someone a few years back but I think that was for someone who only needed to travel 3 days a week.

You can make a small saving on the Any Permitted fare by an Arlesey-London Zones 1-6 travelcard costing £5,272 with daily Peterborough-Arlesey Anytime Day Returns costing £14.70 per day, i.e £58.80 a week assuming travelling 4 days a week. Let's assume 5 weeks holiday plus 8 bank holidays you'd need 180 tickets Peterborough-Arlesey tickets costing £2,646 making your annual cost £7,918. There is no need for the train to call at Arlesey with this combination.

If the up front cost is problematic you can buy 'odd period' monthly season tickets. You can buy a monthly for a month plus any number of odd days at the same pro-rata price as a monthly ticket. If you buy in blocks around holidays you can make a saving.

For example buy a ticket to start on Monday of week 1 until Thursday of week 5. This would be 1 month and 1 day assuming 31 days in the month. Work at home of Friday of week 5 and start your next season on Monday of week 6.

I agree it is expensive if you pay a years travel up front but when you work it out on a per journey basis it actually costs less than the off peak fare. Season ticket holders actually pay the lowest fares of all - it's people who have to pay Anytime fares for one-off journeys that pay the most.

 

[KPeanut70]

Thank you both for your advice it's much appreciated. Got lots of thinking to do!

 

[paul1609]

Personally I wouldn't consider a job where the commute utilised 2 separate rail systems across London. The total journey time will be excessive and you will end up exhausted. Currently these are two of the most unreliable lines out of London with the Southwestern signalling issues and the ECML overhead line problems due to the poor maintenance. If you really do need the job in Twickenham look for digs.

 

[gazthomas]

Personally I wouldn't consider a job where the commute utilised 2 separate rail systems across London. The total journey time will be excessive and you will end up exhausted. Currently these are two of the most unreliable lines out of London with the Southwestern signalling issues and the ECML overhead line problems due to the poor maintenance. If you really do need the job in Twickenham look for digs.

I did Stevenage to Reading for a while and I echo this. It was exhausting!

 

[NSE]

I'd say it depends on time of day though, some of my commuting is off peak and even though I generally go between work and London accommodation, I often come from Cambridgeshire and it's fine. Though I do recommend having some form of place to stay as a first option tho.