Woking to South Acton

[richard222]

Occasional lurker, first time poster.

I have, what I think might be an interesting question.

About to start a job which requires me to commute from Woking to South Acton. The actual office is about 5 minutes from South Acton, 10mins from Acton Town, 15mins from Chiswick Park, Gunnersbury and Kew Bridge/Chiswick is a little further again. From my occasional trips so far - the Richmond -> Straford line seems relatively unreliable - so I would appreciate some flexibility in options.

Likely working 2-3 days in a week but with possible periods where I'll be in the office full time. Currently have a 26-30 railcard. Prices below are without railcard though.

The Woking to South Acton fares are £34.00 (Any Permitted) and £29.30 (Not Via London). The latter seems to be valid either Woking->Clapham and then either via Richmond or via a double back at Willesden. The former seems to add the ability to double back at Waterloo as well as some journeys via underground/overground.

My initial thought was to buy to Clapham and then contactless from there (£21.20 Woking->Clapham). Contactless would then be £3.80 each way (contactless) to go Clapham -> South Acton. So slightly cheaper - but in all honesty not (for me) worth the hassle. I then wondered about the cost to Acton Town (via Overground to West Brompton and then district/piccadilly over to Acton) and noticed this was £2.10 each way - presumably as it's entirely within the "TfL" network?

Out of curiousity, I then checked the fare to Richmond. There is a "NOT VIA LONDON" fare which seems to be the same price as Woking to Clapham. This appears to be valid Woking->Clapham->Richmond as there is a cheaper "Via Virginia Water" fare available as well as an any permitted fare which would presumably be what is needed for the double back via Waterloo. So it seems worth to use this - as I would still have, essentially, a Woking to Clapham ticket (if I were to go via West Brompton) - but would be able to take advantage of the lower contactless fare from Richmond to South Acton (£2.10) - so a saving of £1.70 versus buying the Woking to Clapham ticket.

Can anyone think of anything better than this? I was wondering whether there is a ticket that might allow me to go via Chiswick or Kew Bridge as well without having to buy an extra single (presumably the single I'd buy to get back on the line of the original ticket would be Kew/Chiswick to Barnes?). I noticed the tickets to Hounslow marked "NOT VIA LONDON" is similar again - would this effectively function as a Woking to Richmond OR Kew Bridge return? I also noticed there is a Woking -> Gunnersbury fare, which seems to be the same price as Richmond. The advantage is this would save the £2.10 contactless for any occasions when I walked to Gunnesbury and take the LO/District from there? But this doesn't have the ability to be used at Chiswick or Kew Bridge.

I'll have use of a railcard (26-30) for about another year. Once that's over I guess I could just buy the single tickets as these seem to be similar to a return. But in the meantime the saving buying a return is a significant saving - and likewise post-railcard a Carnet woudl be of use.

Any thoughts/ideas welcome!

Thanks!
Richard

 

[MarlowDonkey]

About to start a job which requires me to commute from Woking to South Acton. The actual office is about 5 minutes from South Acton, 10mins from Acton Town, 15mins from Chiswick Park, Gunnersbury and Kew Bridge/Chiswick is a little further again. From my occasional trips so far - the Richmond -> Straford line seems relatively unreliable - so I would appreciate some flexibility in options.

if you travel via Richmond that would take you directly to South Acton. If there isn't a Stratford train you could leave the District at Gunnersbury or change at Turnham Green to take you to Acton Town or Chiswick Park.

 

[SWT_USER]

I don't have any fare advice for you, but FYI there is a (very) early morning direct service from Woking to Waterloo which goes via Kew Bridge and Chiswick (05.27 from Woking). If you have flexibility to start/ finish early that may work for you.

 

[richard222]

Thanks - I'm relatively clear on the options I could do for the journey:

• Clapham - Richmond [SWR] - SOuth Acton [LO]
• Clapham - Richmond [SWR] - Gunnersbury [LU] if there are no LO trains
• Clapham - Chiswick/KewBr [SWR] if there is nothing on the whole Richmond branch
• Clapham - West Brompton [LO] - Acton Town [LU] - if SWR is up the swanny west of Clapham

You raise the valid point that a lot of the time the walk to Gunnersbury would probably be sufficient to avoid any issues with the LO so would probably be option #1. I was just thinking that, especially if I do invest in a Season ticket, it would be a shame to be commited to going that way and have to pay what can be quite poor value/frustrating single fares if I did have to divert when there might be a clever ticket that covers more of the routes I could take, wihtout having to resort to the quite expensive travelcard.

 

[Watershed]

I think the Hounslow "not via London" fare (£20.90) is your best option, provided you're willing to walk to Kew Bridge or Chiswick.

If you're willing to walk as far as Gunnersbury then a ticket to there (£21.10) is the next cheapest option.

If you want to travel to South Acton then a ticket to Hounslow, plus Oyster/contactless to/from Richmond (£2.10 peak each way) would be the cheapest option, provided you go that way.

Have you also considered taking the District line from Wimbledon to Acton Town (via Earls Court)? You could buy a ticket from Woking to Underground Zones 2-3 (£23), which would at least give you some flexibility - these would likely be accepted at South Acton in practice, even if strictly speaking they're not valid on the Overground on this route. Alternatively, again in practice I think you would be OK taking the Overground from Clapham to West Brompton and then the Underground to Acton Town via Earls Court (though not sure if this is any faster).

It's quite a convoluted commute whichever way you do it, not sure I'd be willing to put up with it in all honesty!

 

[richard222]

I don't have any fare advice for you, but FYI there is a (very) early morning direct service from Woking to Waterloo which goes via Kew Bridge and Chiswick (05.27 from Woking). If you have flexibility to start/ finish early that may work for you.

Good point - alas the wife isn't too keen on that and I should have said. My plan is to get the 7.13am - aka the last Clapham stopper in the morning from woking and return on either the "last" (about 4.50pm) or "first" (about 6.10pm) train that stops at Clapham en-route to Woking in the afternoon.

 

[MarlowDonkey]

• Clapham - Richmond [SWR] - SOuth Acton [LO]
• Clapham - Richmond [SWR] - Gunnersbury [LU] if there are no LO trains
• I was just thinking that, especially if I do invest in a Season ticket, it would be a shame to be commited to going that way and have to pay what can be quite poor value/frustrating single fares if I did have to divert when there might be a clever ticket that covers more of the routes I could take, wihtout having to resort to the quite expensive travelcard.

A season to South Acton via Richmond is valid to all the stations on the route. So no extra cost in using Gunnersbury.

 

[richard222]

Thanks for all responses. It's a bit of a funny journey - it's actually not that bad - if you go at the right times when there's a Clapham stopper you can do it in 1h10 door to door, which isn't that bad - especially only half the time! The challenge is just the sheer number of routes there are which all take a very similar amount of time! I haven't mentioned also that there are options to drive the whole way - about 1h10 but very dependent on the M4 traffic, drive to Housnlow West and tube from there - or even get the Woking Railair up to Heathrow and then tube from there... All of which take suspiciously similar to the 1h10!

Plenty of options - very hard to work out which is best but I think responses above confirm what I was thinking!

 

[30907]

A season to South Acton via Richmond is valid to all the stations on the route. So no extra cost in using Gunnersbury.

Indeed, but as long as the OP has a 26-30 railcard Gunnersbury is vastly cheaper - the difference on a season is much less for some reason.

 

[infobleep]

You might be better off aiming for the 06:56, if that works for you, as it gives you a choice of two trains, should one be delayed and have its Clapham Junction stop removed.

When the last train to Clapham Junction has the Clapham Junction stop removed, you will need to get stopping trains or travel via London Waterloo, if they will let you do that with your ticket.

The 07:13 takes 19 minutes. They next train combination, without a double back at London Waterloo, is the 07:25, which, with a change at Surbiton, will take you 56 minutes. So instead of getting in at 07:32, you will arrive at 08:21! They will be a good chunk of delay repay due though.

There is a 07:19, with a double back at London Waterloo. Officially that takes 55 minutes and you'd get to Clapham Junction at 08:14. You might get a quick unofficial connection at London Waterloo but I don't know if they would be so kind as to let you take the service. You'd have to ask.

I use to get the last train to Clapham Junction from Guildford and if the stop was removed, I'd just end up on a stopping service to Clapham Junction, which took about an hour.