John B wrote:

wrote:
Thank you very much. This is incredibly helpful. Now for the dilemma --
pay 2X as much to stay in a tiny flat in the North End (or some more
centrally located spot), or accept the cost and time of the commute.

Would you have any rough guess as to cost of the trip described below?
I can also check the Underground web page.

Thank you again. I really appreciate it.

Assuming you're going every weekday, the most effective way to commute
will be on a monthly Travelcard (season ticket). All Travelcard fares
are zonal rather than point-to-point (ie you buy a ticket that has
unlimited use within a particular zone or set of zones, where 1 is the
innermost and 6 the outermost).

Kew Gardens and Crouch Hill are both in Zone 3; Finsbury Park is in
Zone 2. However, your journey via Crouch Hill forces you to go into
Zone 2 during the journey, and the journey via Finsbury Park forces you
to go into Zone 1, so you'll need to buy either a Z23 card or a Z123
card depending on the route you pick.

(this map -
http://nrekb.nationalrail.co.uk/syst...LC_May_x05.pdf
- might make things clearer).

This will cost £105.30 per month to go via Finsbury Park, or £57.60
to go via Crouch Hill (because this journey goes through Zones 2 and 3
only, avoiding the centre.

All Travelcards are also valid on all London buses and trams
irrespective of zone.


The aforementioned Travelcard tickets are also available for weekly
(i.e. 7-day) periods as well as month periods, and they can start on
any day of the week (unlike the weekly Carte Orange ticket in Paris,
the validity of which starts on a monday whether you like it or not!).