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I work from home 3 days and week and do 2 days in the office (less a couple of days a month visiting customers) - so I was looking forward to the flexi season tickets.
However the saving isn't anywhere near what I was hoping for - it's £336 for 8 journeys to be taken within 4 weeks which is only 15% cheaper than 8 anytime day returns. I could already almost match the cost/journey by buying two singles with the return being off-peak with a railcard, so the flexi season will cost me more.
An annual season ticket for comparison is £4376 which is exactly the same price as 13 of the 4 week flexi seasons. So I'd not be saving anything by buying the 4 week tickets over an annual every day ticket. It looks like it's only going to work for people who make exactly 8 journeys / 4 weeks - or who make a few more journeys but can't afford to buy an annual pass up front.
Something of an anti climax for most people I suspect. The problem is the rail network is haemorrhaging cash in the wake of Covid, and Treasury won’t allow any meaningful fare reductions, but without fare reductions people are unlikely to come back anytime soon. Catch 22.
And the government is paying the train companies regardless of whether they actually move anyone because of the crazy contracts they signed to help with COVID
I work from home 3 days and week and do 2 days in the office (less a couple of days a month visiting customers) – so I was looking forward to the flexi season tickets.
However the saving isn’t anywhere near what I was hoping for – it’s £336 for 8 journeys to be taken within 4 weeks which is only 15% cheaper than 8 anytime day returns. I could already almost match the cost/journey by buying two singles with the return being off-peak with a railcard, so the flexi season will cost me more.
Unless this is wrong, then you've misunderstood and it's 8 return journeys, so actually half the price of buying on the day?
theguardian.com/money/2021/jun/21/flexible-rail-season-tickets-on-sale--england-covid-19-pandemic
The government said flexible season tickets, which can be used from 28 June and give unlimited travel between two stations on any eight days in a 28-day period,
It'd work for me as I occasionally do a few days a week in London for a short-term job. A Weekly ticket sometimes works out, but buying them in bundles of 8 days would make it much easier to roll them over if I don't work every day.
I used to commute between east croydon and Gatwick airport. It was £10 a week cheaper to buy a return on Thameslink only than to buy a weekly season ticket
That Guardian article is confusing. The ticket types they're talking about sound pretty much identical to what I was using pre covid. Including the paltry savings.
Unless this is wrong, then you’ve misunderstood and it’s 8 return journeys, so actually half the price of buying on the day?
For me it's 8 return journeys for £336. One return (if I buy individually) is £50.
The Guardian article references "a walk-up anytime return single normally costing £45.50" between Brighton and London - that's almost my journey and the "return single" is a "return".
And the Flexi doesn't look like it gives you access to the tube and buses. Mrs mtbfix is unimpressed.
Peak time trains cost so much that if you can manage to avoid them, any savings from railcards ard tiny.
What i can't get is the ex virgin trains - now Avanti, half the train is first class, but almost entirely empty, yet they drag them from London to Glasgow, must add a ton of fuel m
The future of work is not having a rush hour anymore. Such a pointless postal-era anachronism anyway. Flexi STs are much more expensive than off peak fares so limited target market. At some point the industry will realise it is no longer viable to assume morning commuters will subsidise everybody else and there will be have to be some price equalisation.