Travelling from Reading to London - best value tivkets

[DanielDeronda]

I travel a lot into London for a number of reasons, for work & also leisure.

Sometimes I just buy a Travelcard, as I want to use buses or make multiple tube journeys.

But sometimes I just need to make a cross London trip to a tube station day in Zone 1 like Kings Cross or zone 2 like Highbury & Islington.

I just want to know what my cheapest or best value fate would be, I have a Disabled Railcard which is linked to my Nectar card.

If going to work, I'd be travelling at rush hour & for leisure would be off peak.

I'd ideally like to use the non stop services to Paddington but can use Elizabeth Line or split at Maidenhead or Slough.

I understand savings could be minimal but over a year it doo mounts up.

 

[Kite159]

I presume you meant Oyster Card rather than a Nectar Card. Having the railcard does rule out potentially using contactless (which is valid on the GWR fast services) seeing as railcard discounts can't be added to contactless cards at the moment.

 

[bcarmicle]

Roughly how often do you travel into London, and what is the breakdown for work/leisure, so we can understand how often you'd be travelling at peak times? And how often do you end up making Tube/bus journeys while in London, excluding any tube journeys that are part of your main rail journey?

 

[fandroid]

Something to bear in mind is that using a contactless bank card for Reading to London journeys is extremely good value for off peak single tickets. Even when compared with fares discounted with a Railcard. Here's a swift example:
Reading to Paddington offpeak single contactless is £14.00
The same from GWR with Railcard is £19.50.

Going further into London obviously costs more, but it all counts as one journey on the same card.

The advantage disappears if buying an offpeak day Travelcard as that is £24.75 with the Railcard discount.

The contactless fare might be useful if you have to travel up in the morning peak, but can start your return journey (from anywhere in London) before 16.00 or after 19.00

 

[DanielDeronda]

At the moment I'd only be doing a commute into central London a maximum of once a month, but could change to 2-3 days a week. I'd be just travelling to & from the office location in London & would like to avoid rush hour (don't like being a sardines on the tube!!}.

For leisure, all my tickets are off-peak, travelling early evening from Reading & back late, 2300-0000. I go to a lot of gigs around London, so use a mix of Travelcards (mainly to use the bus network) & off peak day returns to Underground Zone 1 & 2.