Season ticket comparison chart

[markwill2112]

Does an annual season ticket comparison chart exist anywhere online? I am trying to move out of London and commute in, but everytime I look at a particular area, the season ticket price puts me off. Is there anyway of doing it the other way around and have a big list of annual season ticket prices per area which I can then use to research potential areas to live? The problem is I don't know areas or where I want to live and it will be dependant on the price of a season ticket, so at the moment it is a bit like trying to find a needle in a haystack by blindly finding areas and then looking at how much it would cost to commute to and from London. E.g. You can get a good deal on rental properties in Milton Keynes and as places go you could do worse, however at $4,692.00 a year there is no way I could afford it. So for me it would be a lot easier to have a list of places by season ticket prices so I can say ooooh that price isn't too bad, I wonder what that place is like to live in and what the rental prices are like.

 

[yorkie]

Not that I know of, but Avantix Traveller NFM06 will make it a lot easier, it can be downloaded here.

 

[W-on-Sea]

National Express East Anglia http://www.nationalexpresseastangli...t_options/season_tickets/season_ticket_prices and c2c http://www.c2c-online.co.uk/travel_information/ticket_options/season_tickets/season_ticket_prices do list season ticket prices to London for all of the stations served by them.


Southern provide a partial list, that might possibly be of use, depending on your journey: a list of prices for season tickets from their stations that are valid to "London Victoria only" (as opposed to the more expensive "London Terminals" ticket that could also be used via London Bridge, Blackfriars, Charing Cross, etc). Annoyingly they don't seem to make the prices of the latter easily available
http://www.southernrailway.com/download/300.3/season-ticket-fares-to-london-victoria/ (PDF)

To my knowledge none of the other TOCs provide anything similar on their websites. Which seems like something of an oversight

 

[GodAtum]

I cannot seen to find East Croydon - Victoria monthly season on Southern. Their site only lists London terminals.

 

[RJ]

London Terminals is a collective group of stations. Victoria is one of those stations so essentially they are one and the same thing.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Does an annual season ticket comparison chart exist anywhere online? I am trying to move out of London and commute in, but everytime I look at a particular area, the season ticket price puts me off. Is there anyway of doing it the other way around and have a big list of annual season ticket prices per area which I can then use to research potential areas to live? The problem is I don't know areas or where I want to live and it will be dependant on the price of a season ticket, so at the moment it is a bit like trying to find a needle in a haystack by blindly finding areas and then looking at how much it would cost to commute to and from London. E.g. You can get a good deal on rental properties in Milton Keynes and as places go you could do worse, however at $4,692.00 a year there is no way I could afford it. So for me it would be a lot easier to have a list of places by season ticket prices so I can say ooooh that price isn't too bad, I wonder what that place is like to live in and what the rental prices are like.

There is a grid available that assists one in calculating how much a season ticket will cost. Between which stations would you like to know the price and
for what time period (s)?

 

[holyflyer]

The Daily Telegraph published a book last year (2009) as a guide to commuterland -available for about a tenner from the large internet book people. Gives house prices, season ticket costs, what the locality, schools etc are like.

The Daily Telegraph Guide to Commuterland [Paperback] by Caroline McGhie
ISBN-13: 978-1845134792

 

[W-on-Sea]

GodAtum, it seems that the cheaper "London Victoria only" tickets are only available from Southern for the stations listed on that PDF - and East Croydon (or anywhere else in Greater London) isn't among them.

RJ, in principal, yes; but not in this instance. The Southern "London Terminals" tickets would be valid not just to Victoria but also (bearing in mind all of the interconnections of the commuter lines south of London) to other terminals, such as London Bridge, Charing Cross, Waterloo, Blackfriars, City Thameslink, etc. The season tickets that specify "London Victoria" would not be valid to any of those, and in a way could be seen to be a counter to the "FCC only" tickets (valid to London Bridge/Blackfriars/City Thameslink, but no other terminal) that are sold at stations along the Brighton line served by both Southern and FCC.

(Thus: both the "London Victoria" and "FCC Only" Season tickets are cheaper than the usual "London Terminals" one.)

One other point to remember about season ticket prices (quite apart from the fact that we don't yet know what the new government's policy on fare increases or regulation thereof will be) is that Southeastern are presently permitted to increase their season ticket prices annually by a higher rate (RPI+3% rather than RPI+1%) than are the other companies (ostensibly to fund the High Speed route to Kent)
http://www.kentnews.co.uk/kent-news...et-price-hike-newsinkent38011.aspx?news=local

 

[RJ]

One other point to remember about season ticket prices (quite apart from the fact that we don't yet know what the new government's policy on fare increases or regulation thereof will be) is that Southeastern are presently permitted to increase their season ticket prices annually by a higher rate (RPI+3% rather than RPI+1%) than are the other companies (ostensibly to fund the High Speed route to Kent)
http://www.kentnews.co.uk/kent-news...et-price-hike-newsinkent38011.aspx?news=local

There are always two options in that case. For example if looking at 7 Day Season tickets;

Gravesend - London Terminals NOT VALID ON HS1 is £61.90
Gravesend - London Terminals PLUS HIGH SPEED is £83.30

 

[W-on-Sea]

Well, it depends where you are coming from really! True, a lot of places do have two options (either from rival companies, or with different routings).


(Compare the price in season tickets from Southend to London issued by NXEA and c2c for another example where one ticket is significantly cheaper than the other. Or, a third option, if you must, the NXEA +HIGHSPEED1 with a surcharge just to take that from Stratford to St Pancras, instead of the NXEA into Liverpool Street.)

But with specific regard to Southeastern, that higher rate of increase permitted for season ticket prices applies to ALL season tickets, not just those that are valid on High Speed One! I think a lot of commuters from Kent are rightly angry about this! They are paying extra to fund a high-speed route they aren't using!

Basically the point is that, because of this, season tickets from Southeastern destinations may well be expected to be (and to become, and remain) disproportionately more expensive than those from destinations a similar distance from London served by other companies. It looks as though next year they are allowed to put up season tickets by 8%, whereas all the other companies are restricted to an increase of 6%.

 

[Mojo]

A few years ago I did a comparison on fares about the major commuter routes into different London Terminals and found that for the average 35ish mile commute (which would get you to places like Reading, Aylesbury, Farnborough and Southend), per mile, trains into Fenchurch Street on the c2c/LTS line were the best value. Reading was the most expensive, probably due to the fact that it has low journey times and most journeys would be made on Intercity style rolling stock.

This was a few years ago so things may have changed since then.

 

[swt_passenger]

Southeastern are presently permitted to increase their season ticket prices annually by a higher rate (RPI+3% rather than RPI+1%) than are the other companies (ostensibly to fund the High Speed route to Kent)
http://www.kentnews.co.uk/kent-news...et-price-hike-newsinkent38011.aspx?news=local

It allegedly isn't to fund the High Speed service. Obviously you don't have to believe the franchise ITT, but it does explain it slightly differently. The extra percentage was to be for a 5 year period from commencement of the new franchise to gradually increase Southeastern's fares to pay for a "£600m investment in the existing rolling stock and infrastructure in recent years". Now that was written in Jan 2005 - CTRL DS was in the future - and the 395 fleet doesn't account for £600m, not even half of that.

Going back to 2005 it was also being explained that while the 'Kent franchise' was being run by the SRA, the fares didn't increase at the typical rates, and it was argued that they were going to be realigned to the correct values in the new franchise. There was a separate report published about the SRA's post Connex 'nationalised' period, but like many older DfT reports it's proving difficult to find now...