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Train Travel
Summary for travel on Weekends and Public Holidays
Get 1/3 off your train ticket
- For 1 or 2 people, buy a Network Rail Card (£30, 1/3 off fares for up to 4 people, children £1, weekdays: after 10am and £13 minimum fare).
- For 3+ people, ask for a Groupsave ticket (1/3 off).
Get to the London departure station
- Do you have a London Zone season ticket?
- Yes : its straight forward, buy a train ticket from (say) "Boundary Zone 3" to your destination.
- No, and live near a train station : Buy a ticket from your local train station direct to your destination (which includes discounted cross London travel by tube if necessary).
- No, and live near a tube station : Buy a 1-Day Travelcard with a Network card discount - Its £14.10 (£8.40 for Zones 1-9 for Chilterns walks), available from the ticket office only, which open later on weekends...). It covers your tube fare into Central London, and by trains out to Zone 6. At a train station buy a second ticket from "Boundary Zone 6" to your destination.
- Some train station ticket machines (eg. Southern) sell "Boundary Zone x" tickets. If there's a "Buy a ticket from another station" button, select it and type in a station name of BOU to bring up the "Boundary Zone x" options.
Current News / Special Offers
Live in London and 60+
- TFL give free travel weekends and after 9:30 on 'TFL' services - all tube, some rail and the new Elizabeth line
- Non Londoners can load a discount on their Oyster Card at a tube station ticket window.
Railcards
- Don't pay full fare! Check the terms and conditions on the Railcard website and buy whichever card will get you discounted train fares (generally 1/3 off)
- Network Railcard: All the book walks, and most of the SWC walks are in the area covered by the Network Railcard, so buy this if you are not eligible for any of the other cards; it costs £30 for a year and the discount applies to up to four people travelling together, but…
- Annual season ticket holders : A Gold Card gets equivalent discounts with fewer restrictions without needing to buy a separate Railcard; they can also buy a Network Railcard for a partner or friend for £1
- Other railcards are: Senior (60+), Young Persons (under 26 and students), Family (travel with 1+ children)
Ticket Types
- Buy Off-peak day return tickets wherever possible - this is what you'll usually be offered. See separate advice below for Weekday Walks. If the walk returns from a different station, check the advice in the walk document and/or ask at your local station
- Super Off Peak day return tickets: Some rail companies offer special fares, eg. at the time of writing there is a 'FCC trains only' fare for travel to stations between Three Bridges and Brighton. The best way to find out about these is to search for the journey (starting from London - all stations) on the Network Rail timetable website, and then click fares
- Advance tickets: Be wary, as they are inflexible - you have to specify both the outward and return trains when you book, and you may not be permitted to break your journey at an intermediate station
Avoid Zone 1
- Its usually cheaper to avoid zone 1. Usually, as sometime special 'super off peak' fares are only from main stations, not smaller surburban stations
- Check the train times, as your journey time might be much longer
- Example: if you live in South London, you could take the tube to Vauxhall, Elephant and Castle, Brixton, or use the circular South London Line (Willsden Junction - Clapham Junction - Clapham High Street (near Clapham South tube) - Peckham Rye - Stratford, and get a mainline train from there. From Zone 3 to any of these stations is £1.70 off peak, and the rail ticket is cheaper as well.
Long term special offers
- Groupsave tickets: (1/3 off for 3+ people) are worth considering if you are travelling with friends and particularly if none of you has a Railcard, but you have to travel together for both the outward and return journeys
- "FCC only" (was Thameslink) tickets from St Pancras/London Bridge south towards Brighton are ~ 50% cheaper on weekends than "normal" (any company) tickets.
- Southern Train's 1-day off-peak passes: DaySave (£22, or £44 for 4 people), buy 3 days in advance
Season Ticket Holders
- If you have a season ticket covering (say) Zones 1-3, buy a ticket from "Boundary Zone 3" to the destination; these aren't available from most ticket machines but you can buy them from any National Rail station to avoid queueing at a busy London terminus
- If your season ticket is loaded on an Oyster card and the destination is within the Oyster area, buy an Oyster Extension Permit before you start your journey
If you don't have a Season Ticket...
- If your route involves a journey across London, consider buying a Zones 1-6 Travelcard plus a ticket from "Boundary Zone 6" to the destination; this is more flexible than a return ticket and can be cheaper
- If you live near a train station, consider starting your journey from there. It is usually much cheaper to buy a ticket from there (which includes tube travel between London train terminus if necessary) with the railcard discount, rather than than tube tickets to/from the London terminus and the train ticket from there as well.
Weekday Travel (Monday to Friday excluding Public Holidays)
- Cheaper "off peak day return" tickets (usually half price compared to rush hour prices) are not vaild before 9:30
- Railcard discounts vary with each type of card, eg. Network Railcards have a minimum discounted fare of £13, and can't be used before 10:00
- If you need to buy a ticket from your local station to central London or a connecting station (eg. East Croydon) and need to set off before 10am, consider these options:
- Buy an off-peak day return (valid after 9.30am) from your local National Rail station to the destination
- Use an Oyster card for your initial journey and then a discounted return ticket to the destination.
Daily Travelcards - the Gory Details
Oyster/Contactless daily price cap
- There are peak and off peak (after 9:30, anytime weekends and holidays)
- Oyster Card daily price cap is valid on tubes, trams, buses, 'overground' trains, and and trains from Paddington, Marylebone, Euston and Fenchurch Street.
- It is not valid on trains from Waterloo, Victoria, London Bridge, Kings Cross, Liverpool Street, St Pancras or City Thameslink. See this map
- Costs vary per zone, e.g. Zone 1-3 is £9.00, Zone 1-6 is £14.10.
- There is a 1/3 off-peak discount (weekends, after 9:30 weekdays) for Young Persons, Family, and Senior Railcards, i.e. not Network railcards
- You must 'load' the 'price cap' onto your Oyster card in advance, as you will not be able to "touch out" at the Zone 6 Boundary on your train to the walk.
Paper 1-Day Travelcards
- A paper only off-peak Zone 1-6 Travelcard is £14.40 (1/3 off with a Network railcard at weekends and public holidays). It is valid on all services (tubes, trains, trams and buses)
- Tube stations only also sell a Zone 1-9 Travelcard (for Chilterns walks) for £15.30 (1/3 off with a railcard, including Network Railcard)
- At tube stations, the discounted ticket is only available from Ticket Offices (which open later at weekends), i.e. not from machines. I can get mine from a newsagent next to the tube station that sells TFL tickets
Notes
- Load the 'price cap' (for TFL fare train routes) or buy the Travelcard (for all train routes) at the start of your journey.
- No travelcards or price capping is valid on the Heathrow Express or St Pancras High Speed Trains
Tourists and Visitors to London
- If there are 3+ of you, it's easy - use Groupsave
- Train tickets for these walks cost around £10 to £20, and a Network Card (which gives 1/3 off for up to 4 people) costs £30. It pays for itself after 4 trips or so.
Ticket Splitting
- Ticket splitting can be useful way to save money if you are travelling a long distance by train. Split your journey into smaller chunks and pay less than an anytime or off peak return fare. There are several ticket splitting calculators on the web e.g. TicketySplit
General Advice
- For destinations in the Amersham/Chesham area, a Zones 1-9 Travelcard is usually best; you can buy these at Underground stations (with the Network Railcard discount) and other TfL outlets but not at National Rail stations
- Note the restrictions which apply to premium services like the Gatwick Express and Southeastern's High Speed Train; the fares are higher and "Boundary Zone x" tickets are not valid
38 comments:
If you live in zone three or further out, note that with a Network Card you can apparently get a day travelcard covering ALL London Transport zones (1-6, plus A-D)for £4.80 at weekends: this is available, I am told, from tube ticket offices, but not from ticket machines. If used to get a reduction from the boundary of the outer LT Zone (6 or D as appropriate) this could save several pounds on train fares.
Yes the £4.80 All zone travelcard can be bought at weekends from any tube station ticket office. Somebody told me about this a few weeks ago and I've made use of my network card to get this discount a couple of times. Still cost effective even if you are making a fairly short journey from a zone 1 tube station to a mainline railway station to then purchase a return rail ticket from boundary Zone 6 to whereever.
you can also buy these from the new ticket machines at Charing X, London Bridge and other southeastern trains railway stations
Can anyone give further info on the '4 travel for the price of 2' offer mentioned ? I can't find it on any rail-related site.
Cheers (tony_cantlay@hotmail.com)
The "4-for-2" offer is called GroupSave (3 or 4 travel for the price of 2 at off-peak times). It may not be a national offer, and it may be withdrawn at any time. South of London I've used it recently on Southern and South-West trains, but I don't know if it's available on South Eastern. You're supposed to travel as a group but you actually get individual tickets with GRP-3 or GRP-4 printed on them.
Southern also promote DaySave, where if you book online 7 days in advance a group of up to 4 people can go anywhere for a day on Southern's network for £20 (just £5 each). If those who schedule extra walks on the South Coast in summer could give at least 10 days' notice, it would be possible to take advantage of this offer. But of course if it pours with rain on the day you lose out...
From the end of July 2006 There are also two types of 'Downlander' ticket offering combined Southern Rail and Bus travel for max £12.50. Might be useful for exploring the more remote parts of Sussex me thinks. See
Downlander
Visit South Downs dot com is also a useful site for linking transport anyway.
Looks like Southern have someting going for May
http://www.southernrailway.com/offers/birthday-ticket-fiesta/
WATCH OUT ! If you are travelling with First Great Western - don't caught out with a PENALTY FARE..
More info here:
http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/~/media/PDF/Buy%20before%20you%20Board.ashx
Buy a TICKET or Permit to Travel BEFORE you board the train.
FGW are hot on this.
National Rail stations don't appear to offer a One-Day Travelcard for Zones 1-9 (Amersham, Chesham, etc) but there's a clever way to get this. You have to ask for a One-Day Travelcard from Amersham to London Zones 1-6. This is labelled "Route: Zones 7-9" and is the same price as TfL's Zones 1-9 card, so it's effectively the same thing.
You can get this ticket online and from those ticket machines (eg. Southern's) which allow you to buy tickets from another station, although they do their best to hide the routeing information when you're choosing the ticket. Note that if you simply ask for a ticket from your local National Rail station to Amersham, you'll only be offered a standard cheap day return (less flexible and usually more expensive).
If your walk involves a station further out than Amersham (eg. Great Missenden), note that a Travelcard from GM to London Zones 1-6 is labelled "Route: via Chalfont & Latimer" and so would not be valid at Chesham. So, for the Chesham to GM walk, buy the Zones 1-9 Travelcard as above and a single from GM to Amersham for the return journey. Similarly, for the GM to Amersham walk, buy an extra single from A to GM on the way out.
Buying a ticket from a destination station outside the TfL boundary to London Zones 1-6 is normally about the same price as a standard Zones 1-6 Travelcard plus a day return from Boundary Zone 6 to the outlying station, so this trick is most useful when you can't easily buy a standard Zones 1-9 card.
See 15 January 2016 onwards in the FORUM comments above for interesting info about fares to Brighton.
Note also:
Be careful when buying Network Card tickets at ticket machines on bank holidays. On 28 December and 1 January, both weekdays but also bank holidays, the machines at several stations were still imposing the £13 Network Card minimum, which does not apply on bank holidays.
You selected Network Card and a new screen of fares popped up but you had to be sharp eyed to notice they were the same as the non-discounted fare.
When I pointed this out to ticket office staff they smirked, which shows they were aware of this. I am betting lots and lots and lots of Network Card holders simply paid 30% extra for their tickets on this day without noticing. Scandalous!
Hi,
Is this part of the website still up to date? For example, can you still buy TFL tickets from newsagents? Brilliantly organised SWC site, by the way. Cheers.
Are you able to take advantage of this free travel offer?
https://londonist.com/london/things-to-do/gospel-oak-to-barking-overground-free-things-to-do
I just came across this video on
YouTube about an interesting trick with regards to getting a Gold Card - buy a annual season ticket between the cheapest stations available!
Thanks for this tip, Moonbrain. If you bought one of these 'cheap' Gold Cards, did it pay/is it paying for itself over the year? Thank you.
https://ageuklondon.act.sixandtwothrees.com/save_travel_concessions/?dm_i=47X%2C73HRV%2CWNSWUW%2CSOJ0M%2C1&fbclid=IwAR04ctGtljTGQecKBGHRnu3QrZ1lditPW6_vYTHTuBLT_u5bZZFfdc_2cYk
Recent Crossrail progress
Train buffs and beneficiaries of this service may like to take a peek at the following link ...
https://www.intelligenttransport.com/transport-news/127459/paddington-crossrail/
Train buffs, travelcard/oyster/freedom pass holders may be interested in the article at https://www.boundaryfares.com/
Any of our intrepid walk designers who have been unable to satisfy their Wanderlust on Dartmoor because of its lack of train links might be encouraged to look again. A regular passenger service is being reinstated on the Dartmoor Line from Exeter to Okehampton, “one of the walking centres of Devon”. On the northern edge of Dartmoor National Park, the town is too far for a day walk from London but might interest those who plan weekends away.
If anyone who has read about the recent caving accident in South Wales (and the 54 hour long rescue effort) has been wandering where that cave is located and if it relates to any of our walks out there: the Ogof Ffynnon Ddu and the Caving Club that formed the base for the rescue effort are located in Penwyllt and are passed on SWC 307, the Fforest Fawr Traverse, walked by us in May 2018. [where it says 'Caving Club' on the OS map]
The Google Maps app, in London at least, makes using buses **much** easier. It gives live updates of when the bus will arrive. It shows you where you are on the route, which bus stop name to get off at, where to change, and where to pick up the next bus.
South Western had a special "Sunday Out" ticket.
Available for journeys of up to an hour from London, the new Sunday Out ticket gives you the flexibility to travel at any time on Sunday. And you can use your railcard to buy it!
Sunday Out Tickets
The inner section of the CrossRail (the Elizabeth Line) opens on the 24th May whoop whoop!
The Hook Railway Landslip updates<
"Its trainspotting Jim, but not as we know it" - some cool drone footage at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMSk1soSrwg
Apparently all four lines will re-open on Friday 24th Feb. See https://www.newcivilengineer.com/latest/hampshire-railway-to-reopen-following-landslip-repairs-13-02-2023/
Does anyone use KeyGo? It appears to a means of configuring a Key Smartcard to allow one to tap in and out of stations without having to queue for a ticket machine. It's supported by Southern Railway, Great Northern Railway and Thameslink.
The promise is that it will calculate the best fare based on your travel during the day, and extract the money from a bank account which you associate with the card. Which all sounds very appealing, with two reservations.
1 Will I remember to tap out on arrival at the start point for each walk, or will the enthusiasm of gathering with other walkers distract me from that chore? Nasty charges if you forget.
2 How well will it work on journeys that come back at the end of a walk from a spot different from the one we arrived at at the end of the walk?
Other's experience much valued.
Yes I have one and have been using it for about a year. It works well and does calculate the best fare if you start at one station and and at another. I have my Network Railcard attached to it , so I get that discount as well.
And yes, when I first had it, I did forget to touch out at stations without a gate, but you can update that on the account afterward, but only a few times a year.
The times I have had problems with it is when the card reader doesn't work - the one at Boxhill & Westhumble has a recurring problem.
It looks like the National Rail web site may have had a recent makeover with some new Railway maps at https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/travel-information/maps-of-the-national-rail-network/ which may be of interest to train buffs.
I expect there'll be a further revision to some of these maps when Old Oak Common Intercity opens.
Apparently OOC nestles between Willesden Junction and North Acton Stations and the Elizabeth Line has a Depot there, so it'll be interesting to see how the onward connection for HS2 into central London pans out ...
How many TFL Stations can you name?
https://london.metro-memory.com/
Crossrail protocols during service disruptions
It appears that when the section between Paddington and Liverpool Street is subject to a Service disruption, Crossrail trains will run into the National Rail platforms at these stations.
TFL have written
Thank you for your web form today about Elizabeth line services on Saturday 25 November. (2023)
On your first query trains from Reading will depart/arrive at the National Rail (upper level) platforms at Paddington station
During this scheduled disruption, Platforms 10 and 11 will/have been used. This may be useful if you're posting a walk in the Thames Valley during a similar disruption🚶🚶🏻♀️
Some massive changes to some train prices from 10 Dec in planning for the roll out of contactless. Not clear which train companies are effected. C2C are, maybe SWR, all will be.
1) Singles half the price of returns (brilliant for some of our walks like Tring - Wendover which require 2 tickets)
2) An evening peak (like TFL) for journeys that start in or go via zones 1-6. (So returning home is off-peak for midweek walkers ?)
3) No super-off-peak fares. No rail company specific fares (might mean big increases on Thameslink?)
4) Not sure about network card minimum fare on weekdays if all tickets are singles
5) Advance tickets still exist
6) End of different prices for different train companies (e.g. southern/thameslink)
Again, not really clear, so some of this may not be totally correct
On some train companies, peak and off-peak prices are quite similar. In others the loss of super off-peak at weekends will mean large price rises
C2C, SWR, Chiltern and London Northwestern in the areas for the next contactless roll-out (spring). So many of our walks (except C2C) may not be effected yet, as the others only have a few stations in the next roll-out area
brfares.com has an option to show a new set of fares from 3 Dec, but from a quick check the only Train Operating Company in the London area with these new half-price off-peak singles is c2c. So for the moment this change only affects a few of our walks (Rainham-Purfleet, Laindon, Leigh-on-Sea, etc).
In the TfL Oyster/contactless area there will still be differences over what counts as peak/off-peak for weekday travel starting between 1600-1900. Apart from journeys *ending* in Zone 1, with a Senior Railcard it will usually still be cheaper to buy a discounted paper ticket for travel in the evening peak.
I don't suppose it will ever happen, but it would be a real bonus if the 'minimum fare' requirement for Network Railcards was dropped, since the off-peak discount could then be attached to an Oyster card.
Can anyone point me to a functional rail journey planning website? I've not been walking for a few weeks but was planning to do a walk this week - when I looked at the Natonal Rail Journey Planner it seems to have been rendered unuseable eg., it no longer provides the ultimate destination of the trains you need to catch. Any help gratefully received. AT
@Annie: I use traintimes.org.uk, which calls itself an "Accessible version of the National Rail site". On the results page the 'stops/details' link for a service tells you the train's start point and destination as well as the intermediate stops.
If you scroll down one of my SWC walks you'll see a Train Times section which goes directly to the traintimes results page. The journeys are shown from London but if you replace that in the address bar with the name (or 3-letter code) of your local station and press Enter, you should get your complete journey.
@Annie as well as Sean's recommendation, there's also https://www.thetrainline.com/ which has a simple no-nonsense enquiry form (and you can buy a ticket). On the results page under the green Continue button, there's a journey time and changes link. This gives platform details on the day of the Journey.
With so many sites vying for business, my local ramblers web site has a page for public transport at https://www.nelr.org.uk/transport and you can find Sean and my suggestions as the last two links in the Trains section. Good luck with your planning!
Sean, Mike - thank you SO much for the very speedy and helpful information. I didn't know about traintimes.org.uk before - and it looks really good. To me, knowing the ultimate destination of the train vital and a basic for finding the right platform, and if you're providing information to a group, knowing where the train starts from is also really useful. I like the compact layout for the results too - makes it much easier to copy and paste into an email or a list. Thank you again. A.
Single rail fares query
My understanding was that legislation was introduced at end of last year so that cost of a return ticket = 2 x singles. https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/peak/
Well this works for Southeastern:
25th Feb, return CHX to Hastings £27.20; Outward single: £14.50, + return single £12.70 = £27.20
Not for Southern:
25th Feb, return Victoria to East Grinstead £18.70; Outward single: £16.50, + return single £14.40 = £30.90; £12.20 extra vs return
For the Tring to Wendover walk where often a ticket inspector has not accepted the return to Tring
Good for London Midland:
Tring return £20.20; Outward single: £10.10, + return single £10.10 = £20.20;
Not for Chiltern:
Wendover return £21.90; Outward single: £13.80, + return single £13.80 = £27.60; £5.70 extra
It looks like the new fares policy (off-peak single = half price of return) is being phased in gradually to tie in with the expansion of contactless payments around the south-east. The station map referenced on the National Rail page only includes 53 extra stations and it says that implementation on some of those lines has been delayed until the spring. However, it does include the c2c line to Shoeburyness, as per Marc's comment on Sunday's walk.
This doesn't yet apply to Southern and I haven't seen any publicity about the new policy at my local stations. Presumably there's more information on lines where it is being introduced. However, most of the time I'm buying a ticket to use across several franchises and it's not at all clear how that's going to work in this muddled implementation period, or what the best fare advice is going to be.
Thanks for the explanation Sean.
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