On Aug 25, 5:25*pm, "[.n]" wrote:
I've crossposted because I think certain parts of my query are relevant to
both groups.

I don't think I've missed any obvious tricks but it's worth checking.

I'm thinking of buying another annual Colchester-London All Zones (£4600.00)
to start in a couple of week time. I'm trying to work out a combination of
tickets that will either a) save money or b) let me have an Oyster card as
well [does this mean I can buy 2 partner Network cards!]

All annual Travelcards (whether inboundary or outboundary) are issued
as Gold Cards, so yes you would have two separate Gold Cards and would
thus be entitled to buy two partner Network Cards. It has however been
noted that some National Rail ticket offices fail to endorse the Gold
Card when a discounted partner Network Railcard is purchased...


I'm sick to death of having to constantly replace it because the print has
faded (though it'll work the gates), or because the magnetic stripe encoding
has stopped working, or not being able to use gates because its an oyster
only gate, etc.

I've tried the one (to me) fairly obvious tactic of trying to see if a
Colchester to Stratford and then a Z1-2 Oyster travelcard (there doesn't
seem to be a Z1 only travelcard) would make it cheaper.

First things first - a zones 1&2 Travelcard would *not* cover the
journey from Stratford into Liverpool Street/ central London because
Stratford is in zone 3!

(Also season Travelcards are now only available in two zone
combinations - this was a change made a few years back.)


I've not really worked out the actual feasibility of this for me but its
possible that COL-KPA (Kensington Olympia) is an alternative to an All Zones
travelcard

Any suggestions at all please?

It would be helpful to know what your regular journey is - a rail-only
season ticket from Colchester to London plus using Oyster Pay-as-you-
go for your Tube and/or bus journeys might work out cheaper, but it
all depends on the specific journey in question and how often you make
other journeys etc etc etc