[Travel] Train Season Ticket

[lost in london]

Anyone else thinking about cancelling their season ticket and getting a refund?

My annual season ticket about about £3k started on 7 Jan, can't work out whether it's worth cancelling or holding onto it.

 

[Beach Hut]

Anyone else thinking about cancelling their season ticket and getting a refund?

My annual season ticket about about £3k started on 7 Jan, can't work out whether it's worth cancelling or holding onto it.

Presumably you travel to an office daily and are now WFH ?

 

[Guinness Boy]

Never been so glad to WFH. Because I switch between client sites, home and London I don't get an annual season ticket but the weekly one sets me back around £160 which I now have back in my pocket in case the job disappears. Just have to persuade the wife not to spend it on pasta now

 

[dazzer6666]

Never been so glad to WFH. Because I switch between client sites, home and London I don't get an annual season ticket but the weekly one sets me back around £160 which I now have back in my pocket in case the job disappears. Just have to persuade the wife not to spend it on pasta now

Same - saving £100/week+ for now.

 

[schmunk]

I'm going to the station today to cancel my annual ticket. It cost ca. £4k and I've used just over 6 months so far.

As I understand it, they price up the tickets you could have bought instead and only refund the difference (rather than a pro-rata refund of the total cost) - for me that seems to be a £2,300 6-month ticket and a couple of £100 weekly tickets, so a £1,500 refund. I've worked out that I'll break even if I'm at home for at least a month and, given the schools are closing tomorrow, that seems pretty likely.

 

[Kuipers Supporters Club]

Same - saving £100/week+ for now.

Me too!

 

[pasty]

Same - saving £100/week+ for now.

Me too!

And me. Normally buy a monthly season to Victoria (£440.90) and spend £6.10 a day on Oyster.

 

[lost in london]

Presumably you travel to an office daily and are now WFH ?

Correct, although i normally work from home a day a week.

I think they calculate the refund by dividing the total cost by 40 (you get 12 weeks free effectively with an annual ticket), that gives you a per week cost. They then count the number of weeks you have had the ticket for (just over ten for me) to work out the cost of the ticket used so far and give you the balance.

If that's right mine would be 3000 / 40 = £75 per week
10 weeks @ £75/week = £750
£3,000 - £750 = £2,250 refund.

One way I'm looking at it is to make a judgement whether i think I'm going to be WFH for all of the free 12 weeks, if not, then I can't see the benefit of getting a refund.

 

[lost in london]

I'm going to the station today to cancel my annual ticket. It cost ca. £4k and I've used just over 6 months so far.

As I understand it, they price up the tickets you could have bought instead and only refund the difference (rather than a pro-rata refund of the total cost) - for me that seems to be a £2,300 6-month ticket and a couple of £100 weekly tickets, so a £1,500 refund. I've worked out that I'll break even if I'm at home for at least a month and, given the schools are closing tomorrow, that seems pretty likely.

I'd read that they calculate it differently (my post above), but I am hopeless at this sort of maths business and just need someone clever to tell me what to do!

 

[Beach Hut]

Correct, although i normally work from home a day a week.

I think they calculate the refund by dividing the total cost by 40 (you get 12 weeks free effectively with an annual ticket), that gives you a per week cost. They then count the number of weeks you have had the ticket for (just over ten for me) to work out the cost of the ticket used so far and give you the balance.

If that's right mine would be 3000 / 40 = £75 per week
10 weeks @ £75/week = £750
£3,000 - £750 = £2,250 refund.

One way I'm looking at it is to make a judgement whether i think I'm going to be WFH for all of the free 12 weeks, if not, then I can't see the benefit of getting a refund.

I would suspect, post this Corona Virus issue, a lot of companies will realise their staff do not need to attend an office every day as this enforced change will change many peoples working lives. Where I worked we had it enforced on us by hot desking introduced and we were told to WFH as the company spent a large amount of money on office space totally under utilised.

In view of this I would cash in as I suspect you will find your work methods will change ultimately.

 

[lost in london]

I would suspect, post this Corona Virus issue, a lot of companies will realise their staff do not need to attend an office every day as this enforced change will change many peoples working lives. Where I worked we had it enforced on us by hot desking introduced and we were told to WFH as the company spent a large amount of money on office space totally under utilised.

In view of this I would cash in as I suspect you will find your work methods will change ultimately.

Good advice, thanks.

 

[schmunk]

I'm going to the station today to cancel my annual ticket. It cost ca. £4k and I've used just over 6 months so far.

As I understand it, they price up the tickets you could have bought instead and only refund the difference (rather than a pro-rata refund of the total cost) - for me that seems to be a £2,300 6-month ticket and a couple of £100 weekly tickets, so a £1,500 refund. I've worked out that I'll break even if I'm at home for at least a month and, given the schools are closing tomorrow, that seems pretty likely.

Just been - £1,534 refund now processing.

 

[schmunk]

Correct, although i normally work from home a day a week.

I think they calculate the refund by dividing the total cost by 40 (you get 12 weeks free effectively with an annual ticket), that gives you a per week cost. They then count the number of weeks you have had the ticket for (just over ten for me) to work out the cost of the ticket used so far and give you the balance.

If that's right mine would be 3000 / 40 = £75 per week
10 weeks @ £75/week = £750
£3,000 - £750 = £2,250 refund.

One way I'm looking at it is to make a judgement whether i think I'm going to be WFH for all of the free 12 weeks, if not, then I can't see the benefit of getting a refund.

[Edit: sorry - I didn't see you'd already replied to my earlier post]


I'm not sure this is correct, presuming you're talking about a National Rail ticket.

My understanding (and backed up by my receiving pretty much the number I calculated) is that they'll look at how long you've held the ticket and then work out the next cheapest way for you to have had train travel for that period - i.e. the combination of shorter season tickets that covers your time. You are then refunded the balance of what you paid over this amount.

 

[Simgull]

[Edit: sorry - I didn't see you'd already replied to my earlier post]


I'm not sure this is correct, presuming you're talking about a National Rail ticket.

My understanding (and backed up by my receiving pretty much the number I calculated) is that they'll look at how long you've held the ticket and then work out the next cheapest way for you to have had train travel for that period - i.e. the combination of shorter season tickets that covers your time. You are then refunded the balance of what you paid over this amount.

This is correct - I cashed mine in on Saturday at Portslade - worth making sure the ticket office person knows what they are doing - the guy at PLD explained it very clearly and even checked a couple of different combinations of monthly/weekly tickets to ensure I got the best return.
He also told me it would take 7-10 days to process but the money was in my account on Monday - first time anything from Southern has arrived ahead of time.

 

[Blackadder]

I would suspect, post this Corona Virus issue, a lot of companies will realise their staff do not need to attend an office every day as this enforced change will change many peoples working lives. Where I worked we had it enforced on us by hot desking introduced and we were told to WFH as the company spent a large amount of money on office space totally under utilised.

In view of this I would cash in as I suspect you will find your work methods will change ultimately.

Just been mentioned on BBC News that New Yorkers are saying that their air has never been so clean since so many are WFH. There could be a sliver lining in this outbreak after all.

 

[Bedsex]

I cancelled my train season ticket today too, I’d only renewed at the beginning of Feb, so have taken a bit of a hit (£3,950 refund on a £4,600 ticket) but I can’t see that I’ll be using it again any time soon.

 

[deletebeepbeepbeep]

I am really at a loss to do with this because my ST is an annual which I renewed in February - if I end up not going to Crawley for the rest of the year it might be worth it.

But my girlfriend lives in London so not only does it cover my work journey it also makes it 'affordable' to see her on a weekly basis, i.e. a £10 travel card from Three Bridges versus a £20 travel card from Brighton (super off peak, £25 if off peak)

At the moment I am thinking of sitting on it for a month but obviously every day passed makes it less worthwhile. If I end up having to go to Three Bridges again by the end of July clearly it would not be worth it but if I am WFH now until next year it probably would be despite added cost of travel to London which I estimate would cost an additional £500 on what I would have spent anyway.

The train operators should offer an option to 'pause' the season ticket until you need it again.

 

[lost in london]

I am really at a loss to do with this because my ST is an annual which I renewed in February - if I end up not going to Crawley for the rest of the year it might be worth it.

But my girlfriend lives in London so not only does it cover my work journey it also makes it 'affordable' to see her on a weekly basis, i.e. a £10 travel card from Three Bridges versus a £20 travel card from Brighton (super off peak, £25 if off peak)

At the moment I am thinking of sitting on it for a month but obviously every day passed makes it less worthwhile. If I end up having to go to Three Bridges again by the end of July clearly it would not be worth it but if I am WFH now until next year it probably would be despite added cost of travel to London which I estimate would cost an additional £500 on what I would have spent anyway.

The train operators should offer an option to 'pause' the season ticket until you need it again.

I decided to go for it - worked out what I would get and what it would cost me in monthly tickets if i had to start back at work on Monday. Only about £300 in it, meaning if I'm WFH for a month it's worth it.

 

[RandyWanger]

Saved loads already being off this week. I usually have my season ticket (monthly) on a smart card then do my tube travel contactless as I'm only Zone 1 and the trains charge 1-6. Tried cancelling my season ticket but not had any response. Sounds like I'm going to be off work for a while.