Network Rail Card

[ska invita]

I'm in the list of people who find anything relating to buying a train ticket too confusing and all a mystery

Have just heard about a Network Rail Card. Network Railcard - London and South East | National Rail
I think it costs £30 a year and gets you a third off?
I commute within London by train. My return journey costs about £10 but I pay on contactless.
Could I buy a return ticket from suburban station to london terminal return in advance, peak time, and get 30% off?
Any way to do this contacless?

Does it really give you a third off all train tickets with the South East and London

 

[A380]

I'm in the list of people who find anything relating to buying a train ticket too confusing and all a mystery

Have just heard about a Network Rail Card. Network Railcard - London and South East | National Rail
I think it costs £30 a year and gets you a third off?
I commute within London by train. My return journey costs about £10 but I pay on contactless.
Could I buy a return ticket from suburban station to london terminal return in advance, peak time, and get 30% off?

Does it really give you a third off all train tickets with the South East and London

View attachment 341119

Network Railcard isn’t bad. BUT not much use to most commuters as you can’t use it on trains before 10am ( I think in a few places 9Am).

So if you commute in ‘normal’ times it won’t help with that.

 

[what]

|If your traveling peak unfortunately its a no. From the website

The Network Railcard is subject to time restrictions. It can be used to buy discounted tickets for rail travel at any time on Saturdays, Sundays and Public Holidays and at Off-Peak times (from 10:00) Mondays to Fridays.

There are a few ticket types you can't use a Network Railcard on, including Season Tickets, Advance tickets, First Class tickets, or with Oyster Card pay as you go. To see the full list of tickets a Network Railcard discount is valid for, visit our Railcards terms of use guide.

 

[ska invita]

Thanks all.

 

[Bus Honeygun]

There's also a ten pound price cap on reductions, so if the normal fare is under that you don't get anything off.

Mine's just expired. It usually pays for itself every year, but I can often wait months until I need to use it. That said, I'm at the farthest westerly point of its validity, so that probably explains its limited use.

 

[Puddy_Tat]

There's also a ten pound price cap on reductions, so if the normal fare is under that you don't get anything off.

umm

this says it's minimum (railcard) fare £ 13 Monday - Friday, but no minimum at weekends.

but as others have said, it's not a lot of use for commuting unless you work unconventional hours and travel from far enough out for the £ 13 fare still to be a discount.

Broadly speaking, if you do a return journey for commuting more than 3 days a week (and know in advance you're going to) it's probably worth getting even a weekly season ticket rather than paying each day. There are some weekly caps if you're wholly within TFL land and do it on Oyster / Contactless* but I'd need to look in to them in more detail.

* - obviously this only works if you use the same contactless card all week!

 

[Bus Honeygun]

umm

this says it's minimum (railcard) fare £ 13 Monday - Friday, but no minimum at weekends.

I'm out of touch.

The weekend exemption is good to know, although as I say, at my end of the railcard boundary its uses are limited, especially as we have the excellent value Devon & Cornwall Railcard offering the same reduction f I want to go to Axminster or Honiton. Which I generally don't.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

They introduced that minimum to stop people from using it to commute. Many years ago I used it for every journey I made from Brockley to London Bridge.

It's very useful if you make regular weekend journeys within the area or if you do a regular longer-distance off-peak journey during the week. Not so useful otherwise.

It also gives a third off for up to three other people, so potentially it can pay for itself in one journey. However, on many routes you can get an off-peak group save for three or more people that gives you exactly the same price.

 

[Elpenor]

There was a Black Friday promotion last year from thetrainline.com whereby it was only £15, this was for a digital card. It got pulled fairly quickly due to it being popular and spreading around the internet fairly quickly.

Can get you as far as Exeter on the slow train out of Waterloo but tbh the cheapest advance tickets from SWR are non railcard and can be as low as £13

 

[ska invita]

frankly fuck all this train ticket black market secret deal split tickets bullshit - winds me up no end - just make the tickets cheap ffs

 

[what]

frankly fuck all this train ticket black market secret deal split tickets bullshit - winds me up no end - just make the tickets cheap ffs

Last time I used the trainline website it did the split ticketing thing for me automatically.
Saved a few quid with no effort.

 

[ska invita]

Last time I used the trainline website it did the split ticketing thing for me automatically.
Saved a few quid with no effort.

This is true but it's getting in the way of my moaning.