Z6 - Gillingham

[j_walker1804]

Hi everyone,

I need some ticketing advice for an upcoming short-term commute that I’ll be making from Mon 28th Nov until Thurs 1st Dec.

The journey is West Drayton (WDT) to Gillingham (GLM). I need to be in Gillingham by 0730 and won’t be leaving until 1630/1700. No applicable railcards held.

What’s the best routing/fare for this journey for the 4 days? I’ve found a routing via St Pancras and HS1 at £32ish returning via HS1 and Farringdon (for the Liz Line).

Thanks!

 

[miklcct]

Cheaper fares can be obtained by not using the High Speed 1:

The routing is:
West Drayton - Farringdon - Dartford / Swanley - Gillingham

The fares are:
Oyster / Contactless West Drayton - Dartford off-peak: £6.00
National Rail Dartford - Gillingham (Kent) Anytime Day Return: £11.20
Oyster / Contactless Dartford - West Drayton peak: £8.90

Total fare is £26.10 per day.

Obviously you will need to leave the train at Dartford to touch in or out to use this combination of fares.

 

[Watershed]

Hi everyone,

I need some ticketing advice for an upcoming short-term commute that I’ll be making from Mon 28th Nov until Thurs 1st Dec.

The journey is West Drayton (WDT) to Gillingham (GLM). I need to be in Gillingham by 0730 and won’t be leaving until 1630/1700. No applicable railcards held.

What’s the best routing/fare for this journey for the 4 days? I’ve found a routing via St Pancras and HS1 at £32ish returning via HS1 and Farringdon (for the Liz Line).

Thanks!

Going via HS1 is certainly the fastest route. And because this is a contra-peak commute and the Anytime fares are directionally priced, it's not horrendously expensive to do so.

You could make the journey for less, and with just one change, by using Oyster/contactless from West Drayton to Abbey Wood (ABW) and then a £14.40 Anytime Day Return (SDR) from Abbey Wood to GLM. This would cost £23.40 assuming you touched in at WDT before 06:30 (you'd have to take the 05:37 EL service to make it to GLM for 07:38), and touched in at ABW between 16:00-19:00 on the return journey.

In theory you could make the journey for even less by taking a detour via Stratford, touching the pink reader at platforms 1/2 and then continuing to Abbey Wood via Whitechapel. This would cause the cheaper 'avoiding Zone 1' fare (£1.90 off-peak, £3.30 peak, vs £3.50/£5.50) to be charged. However, this carries quite a time penalty and so isn't practicable on the morning journey, with the first eastbound EL service from Paddington being at 05:44. I suppose you could do it on the evening journey if you wanted.

 

[j_walker1804]

Going via HS1 is certainly the fastest route. And because this is a contra-peak commute and the Anytime fares are directionally priced, it's not horrendously expensive to do so.

You could make the journey for less, and with just one change, by using Oyster/contactless from West Drayton to Abbey Wood (ABW) and then a £14.40 Anytime Day Return (SDR) from Abbey Wood to GLM. This would cost £23.40 assuming you touched in at WDT before 06:30 (you'd have to take the 05:37 EL service to make it to GLM for 07:38), and touched in at ABW between 16:00-19:00 on the return journey.

In theory you could make the journey for even less by taking a detour via Stratford, touching the pink reader at platforms 1/2 and then continuing to Abbey Wood via Whitechapel. This would cause the cheaper 'avoiding Zone 1' fare (£1.90 off-peak, £3.30 peak, vs £3.50/£5.50) to be charged. However, this carries quite a time penalty and so isn't practicable on the morning journey, with the first eastbound EL service from Paddington being at 05:44. I suppose you could do it on the evening journey if you wanted.

Thanks for the assistance here guys.

I think I’ll try via Abbey Wood and go that way.

 

[hkstudent]

Going via HS1 is certainly the fastest route. And because this is a contra-peak commute and the Anytime fares are directionally priced, it's not horrendously expensive to do so.

You could make the journey for less, and with just one change, by using Oyster/contactless from West Drayton to Abbey Wood (ABW) and then a £14.40 Anytime Day Return (SDR) from Abbey Wood to GLM. This would cost £23.40 assuming you touched in at WDT before 06:30 (you'd have to take the 05:37 EL service to make it to GLM for 07:38), and touched in at ABW between 16:00-19:00 on the return journey.

In theory you could make the journey for even less by taking a detour via Stratford, touching the pink reader at platforms 1/2 and then continuing to Abbey Wood via Whitechapel. This would cause the cheaper 'avoiding Zone 1' fare (£1.90 off-peak, £3.30 peak, vs £3.50/£5.50) to be charged. However, this carries quite a time penalty and so isn't practicable on the morning journey, with the first eastbound EL service from Paddington being at 05:44. I suppose you could do it on the evening journey if you wanted.

Seconded. Abbey Wood - Slade Green are designated in the same fare group for regional journeys to Kent, so split at Abbey Wood is the most cost effective way.