WMR Termly Student ticket pricing and breaking journey?

[RufusA]

My eldest daughter has started her final year at University of Birmingham and is renting a flat at Bournville.

Looking at WMR - they do a discounted termly student ticket for adult students.
For the Autumn term BRV <-> UNI is £231 discounted to £116.

However if you select BRV <-> Birmingham stations (BST) the cost is less - £229 discounted to £115.

Is there a valid reason why a longer (4 stops) season ticket should be cheaper than a shorter (2 stops) along the same route?

If she got the BRV<->BST season ticket, can she reasonably break her journey at UNI every day, even if she didn't intend to continue to BST later?

Is this likely to cause her ongoing problems at the ticket barriers?

I'm just thinking if she can get a slightly cheaper ticket, that still allows her to attend her lectures, but gives her the option of going in to the city centre occasionally without paying any extra - it's a no-brainer!

So it feels like there must be a catch!

 

[CyrusWuff]

The only available Student tickets in the TfWM area are for Zones 1 & 2 (which would cover Selly Oak - University - New Street on that particular route) or All Zones. There isn't a point to point option.

As such, prices should be the same regardless of whether you put in Bournville to University or New Street.

 

[Bletchleyite]

The only available Student tickets in the TfWM area are for Zones 1 & 2 (which would cover Selly Oak - University - New Street on that particular route) or All Zones. There isn't a point to point option.

If I understand correctly from this page:

Student Season train tickets

Get up to 50% off your travel to school, college or university!

www.londonnorthwesternrailway.co.uk

Save up to 50% on your daily train travel to school, college, or university with our Termly Student Season Ticket.


An exclusive discounted season ticket that covers your travel for a whole term, so you don't have to buy a ticket every day. Who doesn't love a bargain?

Student Season tickets explained​

The tickets cover travel for a whole academic term and are priced as follows:

• Unlimited travel between two specific stations within the time period specified
• If you're 16 or over, you can get a 50% discount on the usual adult season ticket price.
• If you're under 15, you can get a 25% discount on the usual child season ticket price.
• It's also valid on evenings, weekends, and school holidays.
• No need to buy train tickets every day. You can avoid long lines and travel with peace of mind, knowing you or your child already have a ticket.

Just so you know..​

• You'll need to have a photocard and student ID with you when you travel, but if you don't have one, you can request it during the order process.
• If you lose your season ticket, we can replace it for you.

...students can get a 50% discount on point to point season tickets priced by WMT (I suspect it's that).

However the only point to point season for Bromsgrove-Uni or Birmingham Stations is a flexi, at £38.10 for both flows. I wonder if they're calculating from that somehow and ending up with a rounding error?

Seasons are generally valid for break of journey (they are treated as Anytime, effectively), the disadvantage would be needing to be asked to be let out, though they may well just have set the gates to accept them if a lot of people might do that. I half wonder, though, if as you have to specify the place of learning they may reject the application if you ask for New St?

The TfWM zonal tickets are separate, details here:

Discounts for students

Students in full-time education can pay less for bus, train and tram travel in the West Midlands. 4-week and Term tickets offer the best value for students.

www.tfwm.org.uk

If the price suits, these may be a better bet due to the higher flexibility they offer.

(Corrected post, I thought you'd said Bromsgrove, not Bourneville).

 

[CyrusWuff]

If I understand correctly from this page:

Student Season train tickets

Get up to 50% off your travel to school, college or university!

www.londonnorthwesternrailway.co.uk

...students can get a 50% discount on point to point season tickets priced by WMT (I suspect it's that).

I stand corrected, but given there aren't any point-to-point seasons in the TfWM area I'm not sure where that price is coming from.

But Bournville - Birmingham would definitely be valid for travel to/from University. The only issue is likely to be that it may not work through the barriers at University, if there are any.

 

[Shrewbly]

As @CyrusWuff says there aren't any point to point seasons in the TfWM area, but there are zonal nTrain tickets. Bournville is in Zone 3, University is Zone 2 and Birmingham New Street is Zone 1.

My best guess at what's happening when getting the prices from WMR is that some sort of calculation has been done to create a 'pseudo season' by taking the monthly or annual nTrain amount then adjusting to fit the term dates. Entering Bournville to University is probably returning a Zones 2-5 ticket, entering Bournville to Birmingham a Zones 1-3 ticket. As it happens these should be the same price, but there may be some kind of date calculation / rounding error going on.

Anyway, in this case the one to go for would be the Bournville to Birmingham ticket, but it's definitely worth checking with WMR (using the email address on the form) that it is issued as a nTrain ticket because that is far from clear in the details. If it is an nTrain ticket it will then be valid to any stations within zones 1-3.

 

[Paul Kelly]

I think they might offer manually-calculated short distance point-to-point student seasons based on the SDR fare, where it would be cheaper than a zonal ticket. Still doesn't explain the anomaly though.

 

[Haywain]

Full details from (internal) Knowledgebase - note that there are two versions with different zonal availability:

nNetwork Student Season Ticket​

Validity Period​

Autumn/Spring/Summer Term (dates advised locally)

Price​

£228.00

Availability​

Network West Midlands Zone 1 and 2 for rail travel and all zones for buses.

Validity Time​

Term times as advised locally at any time until end of daytime services.

Available from​

All staffed stations in Network West Midlands area, TWM Student Plus ticket outlets and by post from: Centro Ticket Sales, 16 Summer Lane Bham, B19 3SD.

There is no age limit to apply for a student season ticket, however the customer will need to be in full time college or university. Customers will need to provide 2 passport size colour photographs and proof of full-time student status, for example a university or college acceptance letter (NUS cards are not accepted)

Validity Period​

Autumn/Spring/ Summer Term (dates advised locally)

Price​

£270.00

Availability​

All Network West Midlands Zones for rail travel and all zones for buses and Metro.