Why do working mum's get screwed on the costs of commuting?

[NickyCM3]

Please Mumsnet lobby the government to start a revolution on the costs of commuting for working mums! Because I work part-time, I pay 40% more for my daily commute (£30 per week!) than a full-time worker. Adding in the cost of childcare, it is barely worth me bothering.

I commute into London three days a week, working long hours and then spend the rest of the time at home with my son. With the costs of daily tickets vs. seasonal tickets, I spend the same on commuting to work per week as a 5-day per week commuter. In other words, my daily commute costs me 40% more than a full-time worker!

How is this supportive of working mums? Surely the government can introduce some kind of system that would equalise the costs of commuting and increase the financial incentive for mums to return to work?

So you think the government should ban transport companies from issuing season tickets?

Because it's unfair on "working mums"?

But if you drove then you would only have 3 days of costs as opposed to a full time worker

Surely this would be the case for every P/T worker?

I think the phrase you are looking for is 'part time workers' not 'working mums'. Not all part-timers are mothers, not all working mothers are part-timers.

Train companies provide bulk discounts for regular travellers. What they should do is provide discounts for bulk purchases of single tickets - but they're not required to, so they don't.

a) nothing to do with "working mums" - applies to anyone who doesn't travel 5 days a week
b) it's called economies of scale. The more you travel, the less you pay per journey because the overall profit from you is higher - you can't ban the travel companies from making a profit.

Find another battle to fight.

Your issue has nothing to do with you being a mum.

But where would you stop? The season ticket discount is a loyalty bonus of sorts and you're not using the service enough to qualify for a reward.

It's got absolutely jack to do with you being a working mum. You could always up your hours to qualify for the discount?

17left, if you commute into Central London the likelihood you are able to drive to work in a way that approaches being practical is, basically, nil.

Nicky

Its the same for many, its not just people going to work
its travelling anywhere during peak hours, its expensive.
Can you not find a cheaper alternative, maybe buying in advance, rail card etc.

It does seem a bit of an irrational fight. Did you not look into travel costs when you accepted the job?

Also you are going to upset people using the words 'working mums' rather than 'part time workers'.

Do you not read the paper on your daily commute? They are already piloting part time season tickets with a view to binging them in this year.
metro.co.uk/2013/09/16/part-time-season-tickets-to-be-introduced-next-year-4031962/

I agree it would be "nice" if you could bulk buy daily tickets. Say, 50 for the price of 40 for people who travel regularly but not everyday. DH has to travel into London approx. 3/4 days per week so he's in the same boat as you OP, although he is neither a mum nor p-t.

I think train companies sell season tickets to make the morning rush at ticket machines etc more manageable. All those with a season ticket don't add to the queues, so "packs" of daily tickets would have the same effect.

I think a "carnet" ticket system for people who commute regularly on a part time basis would be an excellent introduction.

As you say - the cost of commuting (which cost me as much to work 3 days as it would have done if I worked 5 days) was one of the reasons I became a SAHM.

The train companies do this to save money, it saves them a lot of staffing to have people buy one ticket a year than to queue up every morning for 5 days a week, 48ish weeks a year.

Each journey you take costs the train company more if you buy a ticket each day for that journey. (Machines also have to be emptied/serviced/stocked with tickets so while they do cost less than if you use the ticket office, they still cost more than if you'd just bought one ticket for the whole year). They give the discounts to people who bulk buy the tickets to encourage you to effectively bulk buy.

Plus you will only buy tickets for the days you need, so if you have a week off, you won't buy a ticket for that week. However, unless you are lucky that your season ticket runs out the day before your holiday and you can renew it when you get back, it's unlikely that a season ticket holder will not pay for times they don't need to travel. Allow for the fact that someone who'll buy a yearly ticket or even monthly will probably pay for 5 weeks of travel they don't actually use, it doesn't look quite as cheap as someone who gets to save the commute money on the days they don't work.

At least one of us is up todate with the news ceeveebee. Very appropriate link!

Cost and difficulty of getting to work/collage/school in general seems to be something politicians like to bury there heads in the sand and behave like ostriches about.

The young man next door has lost his job because he no longer has access to car. Long and ongoing saga, but basically boils down to having absolutely no money and living in an area with absolutely no public transport.

Dh travels to London 3 timesa week and I go twice a week. We've managed to save a fair amount of money by buying carnet tickets. By using a peak carnet to London and off peak home it costs £10 less per day and is cheaper than a season ticket. On the down side we can't get the train home until 7.15pm so Home by 8pm. Are there any carnet tickets available to youop

No carnet tickets available on SouthEastern. I feel your pain, OP - it costs me over £50 to get to Stratford on a 'high speed' train each day (then I get DLR/tube to the office which adds up) - the cheaper ones stop running before I can get to the station (and at £43 a pop, they're not so cheap anyway).

The Metro article isn't quite right - they are not launching part-time season tickets next year. They are trialling them. On one network (which WON'T be SouthEastern).

If it IS SouthEastern, then I will eat my chocolate hat, bought with the savings I'll make.

Better article here: www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/road-and-rail-transport/10313643/Part-time-rail-season-tickets-to-be-tested.html

I think that commuting costs should be tax deductible in the same way that child care vouchers are. No one can argue that commuting costs are not essential to work.

And how will tax deductible commuting work when there is no public transport within several miles of my place of work, so I have a car? Am I going to get cheep petrol? Or is it just for those of you who need a season ticket???

OP: if you get a season ticket, it will be no more expensive than buying 3 returns each day. Then, and I don't know how these things work, if you go into london on your days off, is it free travel?

I got v cross about this same thing a couple of years ago. My fares wee £60 for 3 days a week, my husbands were £70 for a 5 day week. I wrote to london underground who fobbed me off with some nonsense about software. I wrote to the equality commission who said that you should to do a survey to prove that women were disproportionately affected by this to prove this was indirect discrimination. Needless to say I didn't ..when would I find time for that? However I also did write to first capital connect..and they eventually brought in a carnet system.

Oh I also wrote to the greater london council (this was under ken livingstone) who wrote back and said - and I am paraphrasing here - I wasn't poor so it wasn't an equality issue worth discussing.