Greenford to Reading Season Ticket: Advice

[whole diary]

[tylerolo]

Hi there, so I will be commuting to Reading from Greenford in a couple of weeks and am a little but confused about what a season ticket actually includes.

Ideally, I need to travel one stop on the tube from Greenford to Northolt (from zone 5 to zone 6) in addition to this season ticket. Would travel in zone 6 of the tube automatically be included? Is it something I have to purchase separately?

Also, the best price I can find for a weekly season ticket is just over ^88 - is there any way to bring this down?

Thanks so much for your help- I can't seem to find season ticket info anywhere and a lot of the staff in my local ticket office are just as infoless!

[paul7575]

If you must have only one ticket, you need a zonal season ticket between whatever is the furthest zone you will be travelling in and Reading.  (Easiest for me to look at this from the Reading direction.)  So if you use the NR^» (Network Rail - home page) Greenford branch and then on to Northolt, having changed from a Reading to London stopper at West Ealing or Ealing Broadway , you need a season between Reading and zones 3-6, because you pass through all those zones.

The fact that Northolt is only in zone 5 (and Greenford in zone 4) is not really relevant, you pass through zone 6 on your way to/from zone 3 and that is how what are known as 'out boundary fares' are defined.

Now it is possible you already use Oyster^▸ (Smartcard system used by passengers on Transport for London services) PAYG^▸ (Pay as you go), so it may be easier to get a rail season to either West Ealing or Ealing Broadway, and change to PAYG there.  But you'd need to touch in/out for PAYG purposes - that may be a hassle depending on where the readers are at those stations.

If you go to National Rail's season ticket calculator and enter Reading to Greenford you will see that the first box is a 7 day rail only season to Greenford at ^88, and the second box is the ticket you need for onward travel to Northolt: 

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

You will see the difference is only ^7.60 a week - probably competitive with 10 single PAYG fares, so I'd expect the second fare is your best bet.

I don't use the route so am unaware of any quick fixes to bring the price down, but you could try adding a couple of shorter seasons together, but you then get into a bit of a minefield of ensuring you use trains that stop at the changeover point if both are 'point to point' rather than one or both being zonal seasons.

Paul

[ChrisB]

Greenford/Reading or Reading/Greenford (first box as described above) is just the rail from Greenford to Ealing Broadway/West Ealing where you change for Reading (and vice-versa). It does not permit you off that route.

The second box includes all types of travel in zones 3-6 in London. These zones you pass though between Hayes & Harlington & Ealing Broadway anyway, so you can't choose top leave zone 6 out because you only want to go to zone 5 Northolt.

So to do what you want to do, you need the latter at ^96.20.

If you just want the rail between Greenford & Reading, that's ^88.60 and no, there doesn't seem to be a combination I can see that's any cheaper. You can then choose to Oyster^▸ (Smartcard system used by passengers on Transport for London services) PAYG^▸ (Pay as you go) anytime you want to go from Greenford to Northolt. If you'll do that a lot, get the Travelcard ^96.20, as that it then unlimited within the zones.

[Fourbee]

There are 2 bus routes the 140 & 90 which go from Hayes & Harlington to Northolt. I do not know how long these take or what the frequency is.
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/gettingaround/maps/buses/pdf/northolt-station-a4.pdf

AFAIK^▸ (as far as I know) any travelcard season regardless of the zones it contains is valid on London Buses.

So ^84.60 = Reading Stations to London Zones 5-6 (i.e. good for Hayes & Harlington and the bus)
or
^71.70  = Reading Stations to Hayes & Harlington then add on ^1.40 e/w Oyster^▸ (Smartcard system used by passengers on Transport for London services) PAYG^▸ (Pay as you go) (^85.70 assuming 5 days commute).

[tylerolo]

Thanks for the replies, the Reading to Hayes and Harlington plus zones 5 and six is a route that I hadn't considered but it's the cheapest option so I'm glad I tapped into your expertise!

[johoare]

Welcome to the forum tylerolo.. I'm glad you've already found the information you need.