Am I mad to consider commuting using advance train tickets?

[Edwardandtubbs]

Have looked to find a similar thread but can't see any...

Hi all. I may be offered a mat cover which I'd love to take, more responsibility, more money, a great next step for me. My role is currently contracted as a homeworker, so although I am required in the London office twice a month I can reclaim my travel. The mat cover is a hybrid contract so I'd have to pay for travel. The role is in a charity, so relatively low paid anyway but I'm comfortable on my current income.

The pay rise would be roughly £700/month, all of which would be eaten up by a flexi season ticket to enable me to be in the office twice a week (min allowed.) I can't take it on these grounds - I'm not comfortable with doing all that extra work for no extra money - good move or not.

I've looked at various tickets and I could do it on advances for much less - around £400/month.

Am I mad to even consider this? Does anyone do it? Can it work? It would be for a year max, my boss will DEFINITELY come back to her role and I'd go back to my other contract...

Some relevant context:

• Job is strategic and not customer facing, and we don't deal with emergencies/crisis so people don't really get asked to stay late to deal with things
• Work culture is quite good around time management, there's no presenteeism
• I have strong boundaries, I never work beyond my hours and would be fine with saying 'I need to go now, bye'
• I'm aware there will be occasions where my plan doesn't work and I'll have to suck up the cost of an extra ticket
• Line is pretty good - the commute is 90 minutes from a rural station
• I'm used to commuting - have pretty much always done it so I'm not worried about fatigue etc
• I'm very organised so would feel confident I could buy my advance tickets regularly at the 6/7 week out mark for the best price

Please advise me!

One of my colleagues does this, works fine for her. Sometimes she does an extra day in the office but overall it works out much cheaper for her

Given you know the company already I don’t think you’re mad no.

I have colleagues who do this too, you need to be quite organised to get the best fares and be able to know you're going in on x date 3 weeks and won't be changing it etc.

Some other options:

I had a boss at my last job who worked it so he bought 2 x weekly tickets each month, going in thurs/fri one week and then the following mon/Tuesday etc.

Also explore the possibility of travelling in off peak, I used to do that with a 2 hr commute and it meant I was there by 10 (London office), it depends on the off peak fare rules on your route and how early you need to be there.

Currently I save a bit of money using split ticketing, there is a website that will work it out for you, would also work if you're buying advance tickets.

I didn't think advance tickets in 'rush hour' were any cheaper? The only advance tickets from my rural station start about 10am?

From my station there are a limited number of advance fares at peak time that go on sale about 6 weeks in advance. The cheapest ones are less than half of the price of the regular open fare.

Ah the idea of using the weekly tickets in that way is a good one! I don’t think I’d have to do set days so could consider that. Thank you for all those suggestions 🤗

DP does this, it didn't occur to me it was strange!

@Edwardandtubbs One trick I found was the ability to travel on a return ticket from my home station gave more flexibility in times.

So day one I bought a return ticket from Birmingham to London, that night I bought a return ticket from London to Birmingham. The return portion of the London to Birmingham return allowed me to travel on an earlier train the next time I travelled from Birmingham. I then bought London to Birmingham returns remembering to use the return of the original ticket within a month.

Whoop - I’ve been offered it! Glad I had thought this through first…I’ve accepted. Thanks everyone!

Congratulations!!!

Why would you not do this??

I think it sounds sensible. I have people in my team who do this. You just need to be prepared that the odd day you are either going to have to buy a full fare ticket to accommodate something last minute or be waiting around the station for your train when something finishes early etc etc

I used to know someone that bought his ticket daily in winter as the service was so bad he received most of the money back in compensation.

Brilliant news, well done!!

I did it for a year, worked well and saved money but it was hard work. Booked a week in advance so travelled Tues and weds then weds night booked tickets for the next week