asdf wrote:
On 25 Aug 2005 16:36:33 -0700, wrote:

2) It also tells people that a Zone 1-6 Oyster will work to Hadley Wood
or Crews Hill, so it's possible (and significantly cheaper) to get an
Oyster for that part of the journey, and a standard season for the
boundary to your chosen station,

Cheaper? How did you work that one out?

If it's not significantly more expensive I'll eat my hat.

You has better get chomping you old goat!

Monthly season prices

Stevenage - Hadley Wood £142.50
Travelcard - All Zones £151.70
Total £294.20

Stevenage - R1256 £311.10

A saving of £16.90

All the above info has been taken from the WAGN ticket sales website
(you need to register first but that only takes a mo), and does not
take account of any further discounts required under the Passengers
Charter (which can be up to 10%) as these are only available to those
renewing their tickets. The All Zones Travelcard price is thus
obviously the same as if you were to buy it on an Oyster card at a TfL
outlet. With a Passengers Charter discount it would thus be even
cheaper to buy the two seperate tickets from WAGN, rather than have the
All Zones Travelcard on Oyster as Jonathan suggested.

I must say I also found it surprising that the price would work out
cheaper than if it was purchased as a single ticket. It would appear to
be counter-intuitive.

*However* I am unclear as to whether it would be valid to use two
seperate season tickets on a train that did not stop at Hadley Wood -
and I'm not sure any Stevenage London trains do actually stop there (a
quick look at a timetable suggests not). Rather than cause mass
confusion I've thus posted a query asking the ticketing experts over at
uk.railway to clear up any confusion (the thread is entitled "Allowed
to combine season tickets?"). Once I get a definitive answer on that
issue then we'll know whether Jonathan's two ticket hypothesis is
correct or not. And whether asdf needs to start masticating on a bowler
or not.

On 25 Aug 2005 18:51:54 -0700, "Mizter T" wrote:

You has better get chomping you old goat!

You're absolutely right. Can't argue with those figures.

[fx: sound of munching on headgear]

*However* I am unclear as to whether it would be valid to use two
seperate season tickets on a train that did not stop at Hadley Wood -
and I'm not sure any Stevenage London trains do actually stop there (a
quick look at a timetable suggests not).

Ah, now this is the sting in the tail. The rule you are looking for is
number 17 at http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/conditions.htm .

Unfortunately I'm not sure whether Travelcards count as "season
tickets or travel passes issued on behalf of a passenger transport
executive or local authority" which would seem to be the deciding
issue...

Incidentally, there is a similar saving to be made by buying separate
Welwyn GC - Hadley Wood and Z1-6 Travelcard seasons, and there *are*
trains from WGC that stop at Hadley Wood, so from there at least, a
saving could be made without having to change trains (though obviously
having to travel on a stopper would still increase your journey time).

In message , at 11:48:32 on
Fri, 26 Aug 2005, asdf remarked:
The rule you are looking for is
number 17 at http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/conditions.htm .

Unfortunately I'm not sure whether Travelcards count as "season
tickets or travel passes issued on behalf of a passenger transport
executive or local authority" which would seem to be the deciding
issue...

The current view over on uk.railway is that a 7-day (or longer)
Travelcard *is* a Season Ticket, and *isn't* a PTE or Local Authority
ticket, and therefore the train you catch *must* stop at the boundary
station.
--
Roland Perry

I would like to have this clarified 100% as I've heard different
stories, namely that you can combine two seasons and now the messages
that say you can't. If you can't, the next best option is to get a
Travelcard up to Finsbury Park and a NR season from there - because
almost all trains stop there.

When I looked at the Z1-6 and Hadley Wood to Hatfield option, with an
annual ticket, the savings were significant - nearly £300 (a search on
uk.railway will give the exact figure, as I've lost my paperwork).
However, if I'd have to get a slow train that stops at Hadley Wood then
it's not quite so appealing.

Finally, even if it DIDN'T work out that much cheaper, the extra
convenience of having an Oyster is obvious. In fact, it might even be
worth paying a little more for (in my opinion).

Jonathan

I've thus posted a query asking the ticketing experts over at
uk.railway to clear up any confusion (the thread is entitled "Allowed
to combine season tickets?"). Once I get a definitive answer on that
issue then we'll know whether Jonathan's two ticket hypothesis is
correct or not. And whether asdf needs to start masticating on a bowler
or not.

I rather suspect you will find that you will get three answers:

1) A TfL period travelcard *is* a season ticket for the purposes of that
rule.
2) A TfL period travelcard is *not* a season ticket for ditto.
3) Despite the question coming up repeatedly in the past, there is still no
definitive answer.

Reading the thread in uk.railway, one person asserts that 1) is the case and
this has been established many times before on the group. However you will
also find if you look in the archives that one person queried WAGN directly
and was categorically told that 2) was the case and I've also seen this
asserted several times before.

It certainly seems to me that the distinction was meant to be made between
season tickets issued by the franchised rail operators and those issued by
other operators and I would have thought TfL was meant to be bundled in with
the latter. However the distinction was made poorly and hasn't been
clarified.

G.