Part-time commuting costs

[MrsAMB]

Is anyone else having problems with the cost of part-time commuting given that season tickets are only economical for full-timers? I travel off-peak, with the inconvenience of having to buy daily tickets but when the children were smaller this not only saved me money but meant I could walk them to school. A few years ago my rail company introduced restrictions on using off-peak tickets at certain evening peak times but I could pay more to "upgrade" my return ticket to allow me to travel any time. The alternative, which I opted for as my children are now much older and no longer in childcare, is to work very late two nights per week and leave early on the other, thus avoiding the "peak period". This is not always possible if you have children to pick up by a particular time. I complained bitterly when this was introduced and wrote many letters to no avail and thoroughly object to the rail company always choosing to refer to their "regular travellers" (in their terms full-time workers) and those who prefer to travel off-peak as "leisure travellers". Hardly the case for part-time workers who the company seem very reluctant to acknowledge as existing at all! I would be interested to hear of anyone else experiencing the same frustrations.

I have had terrible frustrations with First Capital Connect, but they have improved things recently by introducing "Carnet" tickets - you buy ten singles (priced at half of a return) for the price of nine, either peak or off-peak and you can use them any time within 3 months of buying them.

What it means is that I can use a peak one in the morning at 7am and an off-peak to come home at 4.15pm - essentially doing what you used to do when you paid the extra for your home trip.

Maybe your train company does something similar? FCC don't advertise it at all, it's in small writing at the bottom of the season tickets page on their website and I only discovered it by accident.

which train company do you use?
I use Southern, and can go in after 9 but come back at any time and only pay off peak prices.

Southern also has alot of offers on it's website that aren't advertised - I bought some tickets in advance and got quite a big discount - maybe your train company does this too?

have no answers but agree it is a royal PITA.

I am just about to go to a job where I will have my travel refunded for 2 days a week & pay the other 3 myself. So 3 days a week is not cost-effective on a season ticket; and I can only get a refund if I produce an actual ticket/receipt, so I can't ask for a portion of a season ticket to be refunded IYSWIM. I absolutely hate buying a ticket every day.

Just a thought - what if you reverse your journey? eg if you were travelling from home to London each morning, you buy an 'overnight return' ticket from London to your home town? Could that possibly avoid the 'peak period' issue, as the rail company are always thinking about commuters as their meal tickets?

Thanks for the comments - yes, I too suffer with FCC trains. Our station doesn't offer the carnet unfortunately as we don't have any automatic barriers. After lengthy correspondence with FCC in 2008 I was promised some improvement in services for part-timers by the end of that year. Ha ha! Unfortunately FCC have all bases covered so it matters not where you start your journey (ie return from home station, or single from London back) so you can't get round the restriction that way. FCC haven't put the restrictions on their trains south of the river probably due to the fact they have competition there - Southern Railway seems to show a little more consideration for their commuters than FCC.

It sucks, I pay first great western just over £100 a week for my 3 day week
That was eye wateringly expensive when I worked 5 days, I try not to think about it now

And I usually have to stand up too

Do you have a local rail users group MrsAMB? They might be able to help with campaigning for better treatment? Not a short term solution, but might have an effect in the longer term?

This was always my bugbear wihen commuting part-time, I think the Carnet idea sounds ideal.

The train companies get regular income from us part-timers, but offer us none of the discounts. It doesn't fit into the political parties' take on encouraging women back to work, or promoting flexible working patterns.

Bah! .

Totally sucks. It is cheaper for me to drive into London, paying petrol and congestion charge than it is to get the train.