Great Western Coffee Shop

Hello I'm new and would really appreciate some advice.

I'm contemplating moving to Wiltshire and will need to get to the City of London 3 days a week. I need to know if I would be guaranteed a seat on the train from Westbury for example in the morning rush hour.

Also the research I've done suggests advance tickets are the only way to be able to afford it. Can you buy these for 3 consecutive days in the week for the same train?

Thanks very much for any advice

Welcome to the forum.

You can buy as many advance tickets as you like basically!  You'll be guaranteed a seat as they always come with a reservation, though as with all advance tickets the later you leave it the more it costs. 

If you can plan to travel several weeks in advance then you can get some quite reasonable fares even in the peak periods - for example on a random day in August I've found singles for the 07:51 for ^30 and returning on the 17:33 for ^23.50 (both fast and direct trains).  Alter your travel times a bit and you might be able to get them for as little as ^12.  As low as ^9 if you travel at lunchtime!  BUT the fares are all over the place, so it would be unwise to do it based on what is available on one particular day.

I commute Westbury to London. Advance purchase tickets don't work for me because I need flexibility, but a season is good value (even for three days' travel a week), and I think it's still cheaper to buy a season to Pewsey and then another one from Pewsey to London than a through ticket (at least it was last time I renewed my annual season). This is allowed, provided the train you travel on calls at Pewsey, and they all do in the morning and evening peaks.

The first two trains in the morning (0606 and 0618) are fairly deserted leaving Westbury, and only really fill up after Newbury. The third train (0701) from Westbury starts from Exeter and is busier, but you'll always get a seat, even without a reservation. The only time when I've failed to get a seat on that train has been on the Monday after the Glastonbury festival, which isn't happening this year in any case.

Going home in the evening, if unreserved you need to be a prompt boarder to get a seat on the 1806, 1833 or 1945 (although you'll get a seat after Reading, or Newbury at worst). The 1733 is generally ok, and the 1633 has plenty of empty seats.

Hello cyoung123. A very warm welcome to the Coffee Shop forum.  :)

If you plan to buy Advance Purchase (AP) tickets then these will automatically come with a seat reservation. AP tickets go on sale up to 12 weeks ahead of the date of travel. Generally, the earlier you book the cheaper the fare. As of today First Great Western's Advance Purchase tickets are on sale up to 12th August 2012, 9 weeks hence. You are unlikely to find very cheap AP tickets if your journey involves travel in the peaks, particularly the morning one.

Travelling 3 days a week using AP tickets bought as far in advance as possible may still be more expensive than a weekly or longer Season Ticket - it all depends on the times of day you will be travelling. Season tickets will give you ultimate flexibility on when you travel and they have the added bonus of being valid to any station on the line of route between origin and destination, so may be useful for leisure trips - even to off route destinations by just paying the fare from where you diverge off your season ticket.

Do note that AP tickets are non-refundable and should you not travel on a particular day for your own reasons then any AP ticket purchased for that day becomes worthless.

There is also the slower and generally cheaper route via Salisbury to consider if the times of trains are conducive. Remembering that it is easier and quicker to get from Waterloo to The City than it is from Paddington.

More details on the times you will be travelling, as well as your ultimate destination in the City of London could be useful in finding you the best and cheapest options.

Weekly season from tisbury to wat is under 130 hourly service more frequent at peaks parking ^3 a day, journey time around 2 hours

That's presuming my assumption that westbury was just an example of where you want to move but anywhere in Wiltshire would be ok

Hi, Welcome

Do note that only certain fares are "regulated", and at the change of franchise and with possible change in services and regimes, there can be some surprises, and unregulated fares (such as advanced) can be radically changed or even withdrawn completely from certain trains.  There are four bidders for the next franchise, and two have them have received 'stick' on here for making changes which doubled the cost of people's journeys overnight. 

On the other hand, if you look at http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=10729.msg112393#msg112393 (http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=10729.msg112393#msg112393), you'll see that an absurb situation on single fares in the evening peak from London to Westbury has been largely corrected recently, and would be to your benefit if you travelled up advanced (able to select a time) but home on a more flexible ticket (able to choose between a variety of trains if you weren't able to accurately predict your finish time).

Wiltshire is a lovely place to live, by the way

Having lived here nearly a year I'd second that. (even if Swindon is not as high in people's estimation as some other areas!!)

Thank you all very much indeed for your really helpful advice.

May I ask some supplementary qs:

I know that some trains go to Waterloo and that w'd be preferable to get to Bank in the City but I can't find a way to stipulate that when researching the fares. Is it according to the train operator?

The APs I found suggested I could do the whole thing for approx ^50 pd where I allowed approx ^10 for mileage, parking + tube across London (from Paddington). Am I wrong on that?

How much is a weekly/monthly season ticket please?

I've calculated 2.5 hrs door to door allowing for a short drive from home + .5 from Paddington on tube. Does that seem too ambitious to you?

My work hours are 10-6 (with some flexibility) but I don't think that helps in any way to off-peakness?

If you guys were contemplating such a relocation and didn't have any preference except to live in a lovely part of the country which station would you choose to be near?

Thanks so much for sharing your local knowledge

Here's the season ticket calculator, which will enable you to research all the options. If you put in Westbury it helpfully gives the via Salisbury route as well. Don't forget that for any period more than a month you can choose any period, enabling you to optimise the period to the days you are travelling.

http://ojp.nationalrail.co.uk/service/seasonticket/search

Pewsey to Padd'n is ^153 for the week which may suggest that this would be a better option than forever trying to book advance tickets, with all the inflexibility that they bring.  Swindon fares are a lot higher (^212) and I'm guessing the car journey in and parking cost would be more of an issue too.