Season ticket perks

[trevmonk]

I am about to renew my Ryde Esplanade to Ryde St Johns Road annual season to get a Gold Card. Does anyone know if South West Trains still offer the six free weekend passes if you buy it via their site? I remember someone saying they were told they wouldn't get the passes because they didn't live anywhere near the Isle of Wight and were unlikely to be using the season ticket they were buying!

I noticed that South West also say the offer is for those "who regularly travel on South West Trains services" so perhaps that is aimed at us virtual Isle Of Wighters!

I may have to buy via Southern who are offering a £25 iTunes voucher or FCC who do two off peak passes. No mention on their sites that the offers don't apply to seasons for other operators services.

 

[Oracle]

I went into the cheapest GC query with Barry Doe. The cheapest GC oin SWT mainline services I gathered, from my own queries, was Twickenham - St Margarets. This is now £308! There is I think still a First Class season equivalent; the relevance was that we thought that a First Class Gold Card gave you six free FC tickets a year, so could be used on Waterloo - Exeter Central services for the best benefit.

I asked Barry Doe about this very issue and his reply is quoted in the thread:

http://www.railforums.co.uk/showthread.php?t=38524

Everyone seems to know of the Newhaven Town - Harbour GC which is now £140, but of course that is a Southern service. I assume that that is the one you were talking of? It had also been pointed-out that the Exeter Central-St David's is cheaper, and a check shows that it is £120. This GWR GC is £20 cheaper therefore than the other famous options.

 

[RJ]

It had also been pointed-out that the Exeter Central-St David's is cheaper, and a check shows that it is £120. This GWR GC is £20 cheaper therefore than the other famous options.

For that price it'll be one of those odd tickets valid for 4 days a week.

My TiS did not ask me to insert Gold Card stock when I issued one of these. I spoke to the Pricing Manager, who confirmed that it wasn't to be issued as a Gold Card.

Not every annual season ticket in the LSE area will qualify for a Gold Card - such as certain railcard discounted ones.

 

[paul1609]

It had also been pointed-out that the Exeter Central-St David's is cheaper, and a check shows that it is £120. This GWR GC is £20 cheaper therefore than the other famous options.

I don't think that a Exeter St Davids- Exeter Central season will be issued as a Gold card as Network Cards are only valid on SWT services between the two stations and the season is priced by FGW who operate the majority of services.
Of course originally the network area was only as far as Whimple.

 

[John @ home]

I don't think that a Exeter St Davids- Exeter Central season will be issued as a Gold card

The current rules are:

Annual Season tickets and Annual Travelcards should be issued as Gold Cards when either of the following conditions are met:

• The 'origin' station is within the Network Railcard area, or
• The issuing station and either the origin station, destination station or both, are within the Network Railcard area.

But we need a better map. Exeter St Davids and Exeter Central are the only two stations shown on the map as both in and out of the Network Railcard area.

 

[Oracle]

I always thought that St David's was in the former Network SE area although the fare from Central. The line between Central and St David's appears to be in the Network Card area but the branches are not. That all said I assume that it is still correct, as Barry Doe advised some time ago, that the fare between St David's and Central is set by GWR and not SWT, so free SWT tickets are not valid to the former and no [SWT] free tickets would be available if the annual is indeed a Gold Card.