If you buy a South West Trains annual rail season ticket, you get certain benefits.
These benefits apply regardless of the price of your annual ticket.
The cheapest such ticket is Ryde St John Road to Ryde Esplanade, costing £172 for a year. These two stations are on the Isle Of Wight, but you don't need to go there or live there to get the benefits which apply through South East England, East Anglia, parts of the South West, and the West Midlands:
1/3 off off-peak Oyster single fares and Oyster off-peak price cap (max saving £4.10 daily for zone 1-6, but higher for zones beyond zone 6)
1/3 off anytime and off-peak standard and first class train tickets for the holder and up to three companions, including tickets that are or include a London travelcard.
60% off child fares for up to 4 children travelling with the holder
£20 off a railcard (network/family friends/16-25/two together/disabled persons/senior) for any one person
six free adult travel passes valid all day on South West Trains (only) on weekends, plus on Fridays after 10am (not valid Fridays between 4pm and 7pm for trains from Waterloo, Clapham Junction or Vauxhall)
The gold card area is stations served by
South West Trains
London Midland (excluding stations north from Stafford and Worcester to Hereford)
Southeastern
Chiltern
Thameslink & Great Northern (excluding Huntingdon to Peterborough)
Abellio Greater Anglia (excluding Ely to Peterborough)
plus
First Great Western between London and Worcester, London and Bedwyn, and Yeovil to Weymouth)
It is valid on services operated within this area by other operators, with the exception of Virgin (West & East Coast), for which it isn't valid at all.
So what's it worth?
Well, the normal London - Weymouth weekend day return is £63.10, so the six free tickets ALONE could be worth £400. Even with a railcard, those six tickets would cost £250, still more than the cost of this annual card.
How does it compare to a Network Railcard?
* Network Railcard costs only £30 (small discount may be available)
* Network Railcard is only valid after 10am instead of 9:30.
* Network Railcard has a weekday £13 minimum fare, which rules out a lot of fares
* Network Railcard doesn't give you any discount on Oyster fares
So in what scenarios is this more beneficial relative to a Network Railcard?
On weekdays:
* travel 09:30 to 10:00
* if you buy rail tickets costing less than £20. Biggest saving (compared to Network Railcard) is a £13 ticket, which falls to £8.60, or £4.40 less. If you bought such a ticket twice a week you'd save around £400 per year
* Oyster off-peak. If you commute daily using Oyster and your morning journey is after 09:30 or your evening starts outside 16:00 to 19:00, then you'll save 1/3. Savings will range between 50p and £2 per journey. Savings of several hundred pounds compared to the next cheapest payment method are possible.
On weekends:
* On routes that use Oyster. E.g., Wimbledon - Bank via Waterloo would cost £5.30 using discounted Oyster, saving £2.70 compared to a Network Railcard-discounted travelcard (the next cheapest option). A normal Oyster return on the tube from Zone 6 to Zone 1 would be £6.20, this falls to £4.10 using a Gold Card discounted Oyster (saving £2.10)
So total value:
* six SWT weekend passes: £200????
* railcard discount for friend/family - £20
* rail discount. Value could be anything between £30 (the cost of a Network Railcard) if you NEVER travel between 9:30 and 10:00, using Oyster, or on weekdays on tickets costing less than £13, and hundreds of pounds.
9 comments
moneybag
7 Nov 161#1
Heat for description!
N1Andy
7 Nov 162#2
This is actually more useful if you need to cancel an existing Goldcard in the last couple of months - they don't refund the last few months as they count them as "the free months". However, you can transfer your season ticket to a different route and they will refund the difference on a monthly basis - by transferring to this route you would get the majority of the remaining value back (especially if it's a season ticket that runs into London).
For example: If your season ticket costs £6,000 and you are in month 10 then you would get nothing back if you cancelled it. However, if you transferred the remaining 2 months to this route you'd get the remaining months of your existing ticket less two months on the new route:
Existing season ticket = £6,000/12 x 2months = £1,000
Less the cost of 2 months on the new route = £172/12 x 2 months = £29
Refund difference = £1,000 - £29 = £971
I hope that makes sense?
dudedude to N1Andy
7 Nov 161#3
In that case you'd choose a cheaper season ticket, i.e. Lichfield City - Lichfield Trent Valley. That only costs £164.
N1Andy
7 Nov 16#4
I was merely pointing out the ability to transfer an existing season ticket to a cheaper route to obtain refund in the last couple of months......the difference in cost between those two routes would be negligible in the greater scheme of things.
I'm afraid I (and most others) wouldn't have the patience or time to sit and find the cheapest season ticket in the country, though I have to admit I was under the impression that the Isle of Wight one was the cheapest (as that's what I moved mine to a couple of years back when my job moved outside of London for a couple of months).
Sambat
7 Nov 161#5
Not much use if they are strike
Decentbloke
7 Nov 16#6
Still true, though.
michaelielliott
7 Nov 16#7
Is there any difference between this and a Network Railcard for £30? Apart from the SWT weekend passes?
dudedude to michaelielliott
8 Nov 16#8
it's specifically explained in the OP
ahenry to michaelielliott
23 Nov 16#9
The main one is that a normal Network card has a minimum ticket price of £13. This one gives you the 1/3rd discount on cheaper tickets as well.
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Opening post
These benefits apply regardless of the price of your annual ticket.
The cheapest such ticket is Ryde St John Road to Ryde Esplanade, costing £172 for a year. These two stations are on the Isle Of Wight, but you don't need to go there or live there to get the benefits which apply through South East England, East Anglia, parts of the South West, and the West Midlands:
Benefits apply for journeys starting at/after 09:30 Monday-Friday and all day weekends conducted within the gold card area. http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/static/documents/content/routemaps/Gold_Card_scheme_area.pdf
1/3 off off-peak Oyster single fares and Oyster off-peak price cap (max saving £4.10 daily for zone 1-6, but higher for zones beyond zone 6)
1/3 off anytime and off-peak standard and first class train tickets for the holder and up to three companions, including tickets that are or include a London travelcard.
60% off child fares for up to 4 children travelling with the holder
£20 off a railcard (network/family friends/16-25/two together/disabled persons/senior) for any one person
six free adult travel passes valid all day on South West Trains (only) on weekends, plus on Fridays after 10am (not valid Fridays between 4pm and 7pm for trains from Waterloo, Clapham Junction or Vauxhall)
The gold card area is stations served by
South West Trains
London Midland (excluding stations north from Stafford and Worcester to Hereford)
Southeastern
Chiltern
Thameslink & Great Northern (excluding Huntingdon to Peterborough)
Abellio Greater Anglia (excluding Ely to Peterborough)
plus
First Great Western between London and Worcester, London and Bedwyn, and Yeovil to Weymouth)
It is valid on services operated within this area by other operators, with the exception of Virgin (West & East Coast), for which it isn't valid at all.
So what's it worth?
Well, the normal London - Weymouth weekend day return is £63.10, so the six free tickets ALONE could be worth £400. Even with a railcard, those six tickets would cost £250, still more than the cost of this annual card.
How does it compare to a Network Railcard?
* Network Railcard costs only £30 (small discount may be available)
* Network Railcard is only valid after 10am instead of 9:30.
* Network Railcard has a weekday £13 minimum fare, which rules out a lot of fares
* Network Railcard doesn't give you any discount on Oyster fares
So in what scenarios is this more beneficial relative to a Network Railcard?
On weekdays:
* travel 09:30 to 10:00
* if you buy rail tickets costing less than £20. Biggest saving (compared to Network Railcard) is a £13 ticket, which falls to £8.60, or £4.40 less. If you bought such a ticket twice a week you'd save around £400 per year
* Oyster off-peak. If you commute daily using Oyster and your morning journey is after 09:30 or your evening starts outside 16:00 to 19:00, then you'll save 1/3. Savings will range between 50p and £2 per journey. Savings of several hundred pounds compared to the next cheapest payment method are possible.
On weekends:
* On routes that use Oyster. E.g., Wimbledon - Bank via Waterloo would cost £5.30 using discounted Oyster, saving £2.70 compared to a Network Railcard-discounted travelcard (the next cheapest option). A normal Oyster return on the tube from Zone 6 to Zone 1 would be £6.20, this falls to £4.10 using a Gold Card discounted Oyster (saving £2.10)
So total value:
* six SWT weekend passes: £200????
* railcard discount for friend/family - £20
* rail discount. Value could be anything between £30 (the cost of a Network Railcard) if you NEVER travel between 9:30 and 10:00, using Oyster, or on weekdays on tickets costing less than £13, and hundreds of pounds.
9 comments
For example: If your season ticket costs £6,000 and you are in month 10 then you would get nothing back if you cancelled it. However, if you transferred the remaining 2 months to this route you'd get the remaining months of your existing ticket less two months on the new route:
Existing season ticket = £6,000/12 x 2months = £1,000
Less the cost of 2 months on the new route = £172/12 x 2 months = £29
Refund difference = £1,000 - £29 = £971
I hope that makes sense?
I'm afraid I (and most others) wouldn't have the patience or time to sit and find the cheapest season ticket in the country, though I have to admit I was under the impression that the Isle of Wight one was the cheapest (as that's what I moved mine to a couple of years back when my job moved outside of London for a couple of months).