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What’s the most cost-effective way to travel from P Rye – Bracknell with a Zone 1/2 Annual Goldcard? Is it to buy a return from the last Zone 2 station (or maybe 2 x single) with Railcard applied on the Trainline or similar?
Travel is Thursday after 16:00 and returning Friday after 12:00 but before 16:00. ThanksHi,
Sorry for the delay, I’ve been having a discussion elsewhere about the cheapest tickets and whether you can use them.
You can’t buy a return covering two days for this journey, so it will have to be two singles. There are different considerations on each day, so I’ll cover them seperately.
On Thursday evening the cheapest ticket will be an Evening Out Single from Putney to Bracknell for £6.60. Putney is dual zoned 2/3 so is ideal for this journey. There is, however, one caveat which is that you can’t board a train using that ticket between 1600-1910 from Waterloo, Vauxhall or Clapham Junction. You would be boarding at Clapham Junction, but at that point you would be using your travelcard. I wouldn’t like to second guess how an RPI would react if they checked your ticket at the wrong time. A further complication is that the Bracknell trains don’t stop at Putney. This isn’t a problem when combining a point to point ticket with a travelcard, but the boarding restrictions add an extra element into the mix. There are no boarding restrictions from Putney itself.
My strategy would be to catch an earlier train from Clapham Junction to Richmond which did stop at Putney. Make sure you have a few pounds of PAYG credit on your Oyster card (assuming that’s what holds the travelcard) and if you are checked between Putney and Richmond just present your Oyster card pretending that you’ll exit at Richmond and use the credit. At Richmond you get off and board the Bracknell train and you’ll be fine because there are also no boarding restrictions there. If you somehow have a paper travelcard then belt and braces would be to get off the train at Putney and get back on again, but as long as it stops at Putney you should be fine.
For the Friday there are no Evening Out singles available so it will just be a case of buying a Bracknell to Putney single for £9.60. You can then use any train. You can save 5p if you buy a single from Bracknell to Feltham and then use the PAYG balance on your Oystercard, but you’d have to get off and touch in at Feltham and may have to step back a train. This also assumes you have the gold card discount set on your Oyster card.
I hope this helps, but do reply if anything isn’t clear.
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