Hi all,

Just looking for someone who can explain some confusing pricing of One
Railway season tickets.

For reasons too annoying to go into, I'm probably going to have to start
commuting from Hertford East to London (I work in Covent Garden) for a
few months, so I've been looking at season ticket prices.

According to the main season tickets page at
http://www.onerailway.com/templates/...c.aspx?id=2013, "Season
tickets offer great value as the number of trips that can be made
between two points is unlimited."

This then leads to West Anglia Season Ticket page at
http://www.onerailway.com/templates/...c.aspx?id=2017 which states:

(1)
Season Ticket Prices to London
Hertford East Monthly
£198.20
Presumably, this just gets me to Liverpool Street.

Further down the page, it has:

(2)
Season Ticket Prices to London All Zones Travelcard
Hertford East Monthly
£282.70

Now, going back to the original season ticket page, it also gives a link
to Season Direct at
http://www.onerailway.com/templates/...c.aspx?id=2013 which says "For
'one' routes into London Liverpool Street, 'season direct' allows you to
purchase monthly season tickets by on-going direct debit arrangement."

So this leads to https://www.seasondirect.com/?tocid=1 which says:

"‘season direct’ offers:
A discounted price compared to a normal monthly season ticket

• Payment monthly by Direct Debit via bank / building society
• Unlimited travel between two stations
• Unlimited travel on all ‘one’ services at weekends and on Bank Holidays"
[snip]

But the prices come out as follows:

(3)
Monthly Basic Season
Hertford East to Liv St
£224 (first month) then £194 thereafter

(4)
Monthly Basic Season + Travelcard Addon Zone 1
Hertford East to Liv St
£313.10 then £283.10

(5)
Monthly Basic Season + Travelcard Addon Zone 123456
Hertford East to Liv St
£389.20 then £359.20

Now, unless I'm missing something, (5) and (2) offer what looks like the
same ticket, but rather than being "a discounted price" it would appear
to be the best part of £80 dearer.

Likewise, (4) and (2) are virtually the same price, but the latter
includes Z123456 rather than just Z1.

Can anyone help me make sense of this?

There is a further complication, which is that to get to Covent Garden,
it's much quicker, easier and less stressy in rush hour to change at
Tottenham Hale than Liverpool Street, but this option is not offered by
either of these season ticket pages. Does such a thing exist?

I'd also consider mixing a season ticket with a PAYG Oyster if this
looked like a better option.

Sorry for the rambling length - hope it makes sense (which is more than
I can do of One's website!)

Cheers

dave