Gold Card Trick - Save One Third on Rail Fares
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- Опубліковано 29 вер 2024
- So there's a sneaky trick you can do to save money on rail fares ... and that's to buy a Gold Card (Annual season ticket) for a journey that you will never make.
I caught up with Alex who lives nowhere near Lichfield in Staffordshire, and yet he has an Annual Gold Card between the two stations there as it's one of the cheapest that you can buy, and saves him 1/3 off other fares on the network - including Oyster fares in London!
Thanks to Alex at NationalRail.com for coming along to tell us about his Gold Card, and getting me 1/3 off my fare for the day! His website is here: www.nationalra...
Download the Railcard comparisons guide: www.geofftech.c...
Official Gold Card information on National Rail website: www.nationalrai...
Could there be anything more complex on this earth than British rail ticketing ?
The rules to qualify for Euro 2020, and the drawing procedure...
The German tax system
Brexit
EVE online
Oh you bet there is. Trying to get a Russian visa.
I've got a Devon and Cornwall gold railcard and it's £11 a year and getting trains to college has saved me allot of money
£11?!?!?!? How didn’t they mention that?!
@@chbmckie because that's not a gold card, that's a regular railcard that most students get anyway. The one in my area is £30 for instance.
Railcard really makes tickets cheaper, and it has discount to buy recently
Smiled when I saw pevensey bay to pevensey and westham. Big up East Sussex
The devs will nerf this bug in the next patch
No. It's still there because TfL insist that a Gold Card works like the *old* Network Railcard did.
@@seprishere old Network Railcard?
vitali For example..... no minimum fare compared to now (min £13 exc weekends).
It´s so easy in Germany: You either buy a Bahncard 25 or 50, which gives you a 25 or 50% discount respectively everywhere in the county at any time and even on international connections, as long as you start or end you journey in Germany.
why would you get 25 over 50
Advanced fares (Sparpreis) are always only reduced by 25% - and in the past only with BC25. So if you always buy advanced fares BC25 is better value.
I am going to King's Lynn later in the year and thanks to split ticketing, which I heard you talking about in one of your videos, I will get a return trip for half the normal price. It definitely pays to shop around.
I heard about a very good way to buy
used this blokes station in chester-le-street for many a year, was a huge surprise to hear chester le track come up in a video
My uncle used to buy one between the Pier and the next station on the Isle of Wight. Used to save him loads on his commute in London.
Pier to Espnlanade is £268. Much cheaper is Esplanade to St Johns Road at £180. Gold Cards are not much use for commuting unless you start work very late - they are not valid before 0930
I'm probably remembering the details wrong. He used to ride into London on his bike and get the train home. Even doing it one way it still worked out cheaper.
Ah yes, that would work - as there is no evening peak restriction on the Gold Card
The old Lichfield-Lichfield Trent Valley trick - a lifesaver loophole for getting pro rata season ticket refunds
I stayed in Shrewley just a 15 minute walk from Hatton last year but drove - wish I had got the train now! Looks like a cute little station...
Geoff, please do some more videos with Jay!
Also I heard your Brighton voiceover on the Thameslink train the other day!
The Lapworth-Hatton single fare is £2.30; so £4.60 a day if commuting. A 5 day week for 48 weeks works out at £1,104. So £160 for a season ticket is a bargain!
Geoff and I did wonder whether there actually are any commuters making the journey between Lapworth and Hatton. We reckoned probably not. But there are likely to be real commuters doing Lichfield City to/from Trent Valley. The stats from the Rail Settlement Plan will show how many such seasons are issued, but not how many are actually used on a regular basis. Alex Nelson
10:55 How is the old sign brighter than the new sign?!
Try kings langley to watford Jon
I was on about the to let guru today, I believe he has retired. Luckily his eaglescliffe office was saved by arriva.
No, not retired, just concentrating on helping people get cheaper rail fares on the internet. Chester-le-Track, the previous company, ceased trading on 31 March 2018 after 18 years purely because revenue was falling fast at people switch from booking by telephone to online bookings. Christmas 2017 bookings were below 2013, whilst costs were rising faster than inflation. The eight staff all found new jobs, including Paul Duck who now works at Eaglescliffe for Grand Central to protect their revenue there. Chester-le-Street now has ticket machines and a 0700-1300 office just doing walk up fares, not advance purchase tickets, no railcards and no reservations. I now trade on line only at nationalrail.com. Alex Nelson
Sometimes the 1st class is even cheaper, once there is one or two left!
15:31 its the 15:34 train
I'm just outside the gold card map :(
If they get a gold card form a 1 day service station only another 1 day service station only
That might be cheap
I am a rare user of Newhaven Harbour train station... I have never seen anybody commute between the harbour and town stops. I certainly wouldn't pay £168 what a ripoff. Just walk it.
Things need to change. It's a good test of skill and knowledge, but that is not how it should e. People will blindly believe the trainline.com. There's so many examples that only the geeky could know or the lucky would stumble across. It does not have to be this way.
Only south of England.......
If Stafford and Sherringham are in the south of England then, yes …...
Always remember a group of Kiwis & a group of Aussies that travelled up from Brighton to London one day. The 4 Aussies bought a ticket each, the Kiwis only bought one ticket between the 4 of them. "But what happens when the Ticket Inspector comes along?" the Aussies asked. "Watch & learn" said the Kiwis "Watch & learn". Sure enough a ticket inspector came along. The 4 Kiwis quickly piled into the toilet. When the inspector got there he knocked on the door "Tickets please". The single ticket got slid under the door, clipped & returned.
"Wow - that's clever" said the Aussies after the inspector had left & the Kiwis emerged from the toilet.
Next day the same two groups were travelling to Dover. The Aussies confidently bought a single ticket & boarded the train. The Kiwis didn't buy a ticket at all. "But what happens when the Ticket Inspector comes along this time if you have no ticket?" the Aussies asked. "Watch & learn" said the Kiwis. When the ticket inspector was spotted the 4 Aussies quickly piled into a toilet like they had seen the Kiwis do.
"Tickets please". The single ticket got slid under the door, and one of the Kiwis picked it up & walked down to the next toilet to wait for the ticket inspector to arrive!
That's as old as the hills.
I call bs on this. When the actual inspector knocks on the toilet door, and presumably gets a reply "I've just given you my ticket", what happens next? You think the Kiwi gets away with it, or for that matter the four Aussies in the toilet together?
😆
I really enjoyed reading that
We have the same joke about the Swedes
That guys voice would be great on train announcements
He is! He’s the voice on the Brighton line development, was featured last week on a video 😊👍🏻
I heard about a very good way to buy
the gold card rates as of october 2022 are
Lichfield TV to Lichfield City £192.00
Hatton to Lapworth £184.00
I’m always on the lookout for the best discounts and can share some great savings tips with you.
So; the 'break even' point to make this trick work is £480 per annum. If you spend more than £480 on off-peak rail fares or Oyster over twelve months then it's worth you getting a Gold Card. Roughly speaking, if you spend over £10 a week on off-peak TfL Travel or rail travel in London and the SE, it's worth doing - because 48 weeks multiplied by £10 = £480.
NOTE - Tou have to ask at the ticket office to have the TFL/Oyster discount applied, it is not applied automatically. It only works for Oyster, and not Contactless ...
is that £480 monthly or annually? Been looking for the cheapest way to do Woking - Waterloo (with TFL travelcard), mostly off-peak but peak return on rare occasions.
£480 per annum he said.
Shane Feather - Note that all gold card discounts apply to off-peak travel only.
Shane - Do check on this whether a Network Railcard is better for you - it DOES include travelcards bough upfront, and hence likely to be at least £13. But you'd have to always be travelling after 10am each day. (And do check the small print on the return from WAT as I think proper off-peak tickets such as travelcard are valid on more services than the SWR fares)
I don't think my travel would justify the extra over the Network Railcard, but it would probably be close if I calculated it, albeit with risk of paying up front! The boundaries for both are bizarre though, Worcester, Exeter and Kings Lynn (plus Shrewsbury and Sheringham on the Gold Card!) are fine, but not say Swindon or Peterborough.
As per Geoff's summing up at the end of the video I hope the current Railcard structure gets an overhaul as there are distinct "gaps", both in terms of age group and geography. I'm 45 so therefore too old for the YP Railcard and evidently too young for an OAP Railcard; I *do* have a F&F Railcard but don't always want to travel with my kids in tow so that I can qualify for cheaper fares; and I don't live within the Gold Card area to be able to benefit from the trick highlighted in this video.
Perhaps a "Midlife Crisis" Railcard for those of us in that age bracket that want to travel alone and benefit from discounted fares.
All joking aside, I would be quite prepared to pay £50-£80 per annum for a 'National Railcard' that allowed me to travel off-peak/weekends with the usual discount. Not sure that's going to happen, mind....
Germany had a simple railcard structure open to all. The more you pay the more off a discount. Discounts available at 25%, 50%, & 100%.
The consultation is now closed.
In NL I have had a National railcard - 40% off off-peak journeys for 40-50 euros a year - for literally decades.
Karl Florczak Rail card discounts for all ages would be nice
One idea I’ve had for train companies is them having standing room carriages only and they offer discounted tickets. More people can get on the train, less things for the train companies staff to clean whilst in the depot and if they just don’t get the seats put in the train, the train companies could probably get a cheaper purchasing price on the units when they’re buying if they’re not having to get seats put in and stuff
Josh Wilson Good idea. Otherwise known as cattle trucks. Oh! Wait! Some of us get into those already.....
Didn't realise you can buy it for just £160 instead of £5208 what it would cost for my seasonal ticket.
The BIGGEST disadvantage is it doesn't work on Virgin Trains!! 😢 Because of that Network Railcard is still very luxurious.
Exeter Central - Exeter St David's part time annual season (valid Monday, Wednesday, Friday and weekend) is £140; I asked at Exeter Central and they said that it is eligible for a Gold Card.
Yeah, a Devon and Cornwall Gold Card.
No, a real Gold Card, the full map is here: www.nationalrail.co.uk/Gold%20Card%20Dgm%20Key.pdf
Indeed, it is a proper NSE-style Gold Card.
Thanks mate! Every penny counts.
I did manage to buy this ticket eventually, but it was a massive hassle to buy, because although it's technically valid Gold Card, this weird part-time ticket (valid only on certain days of the week) is an oddity that staff don't know about.
TL;DR - Possible but massive faff to buy. May not be worth the price difference between the Lichfield ticket if you have to visit the ticket office 4 times and spend an hour on the phone to persuade them that it is in fact a valid Gold Card.
Step 1: Go to Waterloo. SWR ticket office issued the photo card, but could not issue the Exeter gold card. Supervisors come over. Frowning at the computer. "Hmm. we're not trained on this ticket." Okay. I'll order it online now I have my photocard.
Step 2: Order online. SWR want £7.50 for postage. It's not clear on the website that if you order it more than a week in advance, it is actually only £2. I ordered it in the end via SouthEastern, as postage was slightly cheaper.
Step 3: Card arrives in the post, but it is printed as a standard blue "SEASON" ticket and not a gold card. Phone customer services and after some time on hold, they eventually agree that is it is a valid gold card, and I should take it to any SouthEastern ticket office to be replaced.
Step 4: Thursday. Go to London Bridge South Eastern station. Explain situation. They try for about half an hour to print the ticket, but their system won't do it. They call and speak to retail support and eventually I'm told to come back in a couple of days and they should be able to print the ticket.
Step 5: Go back to London Bridge the following Monday, they try again to print the ticket, but the system won't let them do it, because the ticket isn't valid yet - it starts the following day. Come back tomorrow.
Step 6: Go back the next day, but I'm told I'm apparently TOO LATE this time as it's after 2PM, and the supervisors aren't around. I got there after work at 5PM. "Sorry, come back tomorrow morning. Nothing I can do now."
Steps 7: Go back the next day, they all recognise me now. After about 10 minutes, two of them on the phone to their retail support people, THE UNICORN TICKET is finally printed!! Three cheers all round.
Step 8: Go to get the Oyster PAYG discount applied. They can't do this at the tube station at London Bridge for some reason. (There's no ticket office, and only SOME of the gateline / station staff can do it at the ticket machines.) Travel to Liverpool Street LU station, where they apply the PAYG discount.
All the staff were very helpful and lovely, but it was a lot of back-and forth, and the cost of travelling to London Bridge four times and then Liverpool Street has eaten the £30 price difference in the Lichfield ticket. (£152 vs £180 today.)
Rail cards are 100% worth it. (If you’re eligible that is)
I was looking at a fare of £96 from Henley-on-Thames to Lancaster. However instead, I bought a railcard for £30, and ended up paying £40 for my trip, meaning I spent £70 total AND I now have a railcard to use as well.
If your railcard fare was £40, there must have been a non-railcard fare of about £60, not £96
That’s what I thought, but looking back my original fare must’ve been a peak time ticket, then after I bought my railcard for whatever reason it charged me an off peak price, either that or when I went to rebook I ended up choosing an off peak time otherwise.
Was this the gold card or network rail card?
Single To Taken TV it was a 16-24 rail card
Yes. Different age has different discount. And there's a discount code too.
Absolutely useless for peak time travel though :(
Nebulous concept anyway on some of the so called "services". No wonder half my colleagues work from home.
Simple question: where is the "all you can travel" option? Anytime, Anywhere, Any Class.
The Swiss have the GA, Germans the BahnCard 100 and Austria the OsterreichCard. They are so good! Extremely expensive, but very simple and "liberating".
CrisX101 it’s called the BritRail pass.
The Dutch have the OV chip card into which you can load Altijd Vrij (always free-as-in-speech) which costs, first class, 560 euros a month when committing to a year or 700 for just a month. (Second: 333/410)
Britrail Pass (£260 for 8 days) is only available to foreigners. The All-Lines Rover costs £510 for 7 days
Norbiton Flyer True, though BritRail is also on offer to non-residents.
BahnCard 100 is extremely cheap when compared to UK season ticket prices, especially as it can be used across the whole of Germany, compared to just between two points for UK seasons.
Well, it's not really a gold card, more like beige or taupe
evancortez2 no it’s called the gold card for the people who are in their golden years
It's probably worth mentioning that if you live and work in London and would usually buy a weekly or monthly zoned travelcard then by buying an annual travelcard you also get a Gold Card (actually a Gold Record Card) which gets you all the same benefits, including the discount on off-peak TfL fares on journeys out of your travelcard zones. I haven't tried it, but I guess you could have an annual zone 1-2 travelcard and if you wanted you could travel from Heathrow to Epping, through zone 1, off peak for just £1 - perhaps someone could confirm.
4:55 - "I always get lost here [Birmingham New Street]"... Geoff, I live in this city and I can tell you that all the locals get confused as well. I have to remember that John Lewis is on the south side of the station and that helps me get my bearings!
Best tip I learnt - if transferring trains there always use the B end of the platform rather than the A end. I'm a local so I know it well enough now for myself.
@@IAmTheBeckett Yes, saves having to go through two sets of barriers. They've started advising to use that concourse for transferring on London Northwestern Railway services too.
It's not that hard! The big eye entrance where you go to moor street is just by five guys which you can see pretty easy, though just walk forward past pret. though if you want to go down the side passage you just go onwards past the escalators and go down there but I think it takes more time.
Thanks to this video I have taken the plunge. I already provide young person railcards to my youger employees as standard, so for me to have this too is fantastic. I easily make enough journeys to and through London for this to be worth every penny. Just a shame Peterborough isn't included. Thank you Geoff.
Actually there is discount that you can apply for buying train tickets now
Enjoyable and informative as always Geoff. We bought a Family and Friends railcard even though Rachel was only 2 because we wanted a seat for her on the long trip down the east coast mainline. Ever since then, though, whenever we've been travelling with her on local trains, it's actually been cheaper to buy her a ticket even though we don't need to, because up to 4 adults get a third off when a child is part of the group! Crazy rules but we're not complaining!
Could you make a video showing the benefits of a Gold card in and around London if I understood it correctly? If used off peak and how much of a saving? If someone could explain in comments too that would save some hassle!
Asumming that the Off peak cap on Oyster is £12 (to make maths easy), then it is actually £8 with the gold card. £160/£8 = 20 daily caps at off peak. That is roughly going to London half the Sundays in a year
If travelling to London national rail and buying an all zones travelcard, the Network Railcard offers a discount. For some regular users travelling after 10, that MAY be a better deal than the Gold Card (if only because of the >£100 saving up front).
@@PianoKwanMan
20 days @ £8.00 capped = £160 + £160 Gold Card = £320.
20 days @ £12.00 uncapped = £240 + no Gold Card = £240.
40 days @ £8.00 capped = £320 + £160 Gold Card = £480.
40 days @ £12.00 uncapped = £480 + no Gold Card = £480.
So need to use Gold Card for >40 days to >break even.
Or am I missing something here.
Eric Dunn Incorrect! You should have used the saving from the capped fare (£4) not the capped fare itself (£8).
Therefore £160 plus (20 x £4) £80 = £240.....
Some of us are now of an age where we get a Senior Railcard anyway. Saved a fortune with it last year (trip Huddersfield - Inverness principally, which I split ticketed too) but handy for film festival work in Blackpool too.
Actually there is a discount that you can apply for buying train tickets now.
Hatton isn't in the middle of nowhere (I'm biased though, it's my local station)
I am struggling with where the savings are on this one because if you are single and childfree this doesn't seem like a good deal. I bought a Railcard for £30 (on the advice of a more savvy friend) and that gives a third off ticket prices on off peak travel, and you can get a zone one to six pass included. So a day in London from Eastbouring costs £16.75. I think you can also take an adult friend. Either ai have misunderstood this or....
Why not just bum....... oops wrong comment section.
We think rail fares cost all to much in Sweden, but in the UK it's robbery.... A SJ Årskort Guld costs £6 216.95 and gives you free travel in both first and second class on all departures on the network day and night for a whole year. And you get a free meal from the Bistro!
If you down grade one step to Silver Plus you can only ride in 2nd class on sleeper trains and you only get a free breakfast before 09:00. cost £5 719.74
In the lowest level, Silver, you get free travel in 2nd class on all departures day and night + free tea and coffe. cost £3 682.54
Compared to 1/3 off on the price on off peak travels in parts of the country
Great vid about the fare structure in the UK, here in The Netherlands it's much much easier. I have a Weekend Unlimited 1st Class Pass, wich gives me 100% discount in 1st class from friday 18:30 untill monday 4:00, and during the week 40% off during off-peak hours. Dutch rail and other PT tickets are so much easier to use.
It's cuase London mindland parent Company Govia still had a large majority of other train franchises running in the same area like the southern West London Branch from Milton Keynes-East Croydon and running GTR and so on
In interests who wants what company to win the southeastern franchise
Compare this to a Bahn pass 100 which gets you unlimited rail journeys everywhere in Germany for 395€ a month...
Great video, at least the CrossCity line didn't mess you around on the day you went.
Geoff your chat brought up a name from the past ... Chris Green ... now with Railfuture ... well worth an interview if you can grab him.
He was an arrogant git when he worked at British Rail, I'm sure he hasn't changed for the better.
Can you do a video explaining The Key?
Iona it’s not that hard, it’s just a card for tickets instead of a paper ticket
Interesting video. My friend gets a Gold card for free as part of her annual London travel card. Strangely some ticket machines don't have the gold card option though the card is valid on the routes they cover. Just the other day in Euston the red ticket machines wouldn't give the option yet the old green one did for exactly the same journey (Euston to Kings Langley). An oversight? Deliberate? Or is the option just hidden away?
The Gold Card isn't valid on Virgin Trains services, so likely they haven't bothered to add it to their system for other fare sales I'd assume :/
Hah I used to live in CLS, seeing Alex on this channel always makes me miss it. You also missed one of the things that wasn't apparent to me about Gold Cards - I get an Annual MKC->London Z1-6 card, but sometimes travel to Oxford, which is outside the Gold Card zone. HOWEVER a kind soul at Paddington pointed out that instead of getting 1/3rd off Pad->Oxf I should be getting a third off "edge of zone 6 to Oxford", which is significantly cheaper
The editing on this video is better than a number of past videos. It does not include as much pure noise. I like this style much better. Rob
Wow wait in The Netherlands I pay €50 (about £45) for a year and I get 40% discount off peak and in the weekends to anywhere in the country. You'll have earned it back in like 3 trips across the country. Way cheaper than those gold cards and more benefits even I think
Hi Geoff, I wonder if the fares consultation will result similar to the pricing in retail over the last ten years? Prices were linked to cost plus which eventually becomes uncompetitive, in response; discount schemes are offered, then the discount schemes become so complex that they are considered unattractive and the message delivered to customers is that prices are being made as low as possible. Then the cycle begins again, I guess. The regrettable part about this is that people who considered them selves to be engaged by a discount scheme have to recognise the price discount or will become alienated meanwhile latent demand may be found from potential customers who were unwilling to engage with the discount scheme but do consider the new prices to be a bargain. CV on request.
Moor street is a lovely station.
I concur. Do they still have the absolutely massive GWR route map (even inc Ireland) on the wall in the quaint little tea room? You'd love it, @geofftech.
Geoff WELCOME TO BIRMINGHAM BRO for a bit lol but you will get it when you get to Birmingham more often
I had something similar on season tickets in the 80s and 90s. Firstly a railcard because I was commuting to London, but when I was not using commuter trains, I had a season ticket from Sheffield to Attercliffe Road. Cost about £36. Station closed in 1995
Very excited to see at 1:28 the scrolling display listing a train I've taken perhaps hundreds of times going between University/Selly Oak and New Street, as a student of the University of Birmingham (i.e.the "University" of University station - as far as I'm aware, it's the only university in the country to have its own train station on campus)
That is probably the most boring few minutes I have ever experienced on UA-cam. Alarmingly, it was hard to stop watching ...
You know what they say, "you can't bore the willing to watch" ;)
At 03:35, notice how Geoff is vague about journeys on the Isle of Wight. Almost like he's never been there...
No one goes there. haha
Hi Geoff, I’ve lived alone in Manchester 21 years at age 53 and I use SailRail to travel home to family in Rural Ireland via Holyhead/Dublin on Irish Ferries - is there any tips and tricks/advice that you know of? In 2021, I also had a later in life diagnosis of Autism and I’ve been hearing about a disabled person’s railcard, so I’m interested in hearing your thoughts on this - a big bugbear for me is Manchester Piccadilly platform 14, coming from Metrolink Trams from Shudehill - the trains to Holyhead don’t even call at Deansgate/Castlefield as an easier connection from Metrolink and especially since many trains require a change at either Crewe, Chester or Lladnuo in Wales (so very few direct trains from Manchester to Holyhead) - Manchester Victoria is usually better for me, even though it still involves changing at Chester and different train operators, larger trains and more luggage space - I’ve used TfW before but thier trains are tiny and very busy compared to Avanti and Northern, which are far more comfortable
I love and hate Europe. I was fascinated by the stunning scenery and rich history, but I was overwhelmed by the high cost. I think TRIP's discount coupon saved me.
I'll stick to my Zip oyster and my 16-25 railcard.
Thank you for sharing this information.British train tickets are becoming more expensive these days. Luckily I found a discount.
Almost worth mentioning that the Gold Card gives you 1/3 discount on the Wightlink Fastcat service from Portsmouth Harbour - Ryde Pier Head, as long as there is a rail journey included.
So you can buy a ticket from London Waterloo - Shanklin (for example), and the discount is applied to the ferry as well.
OR buy from Portsmouth Harbour - Ryde Pier Head (great if it's raining) and you'll also get the discount.
Gold Cards allow you to travel with 3 others on the boat with the same discount :)
Yes! Different age has different discount. And there's a discount code too.
Ah, they've just explained it. This minimum fare on the railcard (£13) is a bit of a pain but you really have to be doing a lot of (off peak) travelling to cough up £160 plus. 9.30 am is good but not enough if you have early appointments (then you have to cough up da cash) and what about coming back times? But this is interesting.
I think you maybe confusing a network railcard with the gold card. Its easily done with all the options. From memory I used to pay £30 a year for 1/3 off travel in the network south east area. It used to have a travel time restriction so you could not travel on peak morning trains but could travel any other time and....it did not use to have a minimum fare. I live in part of Tunbridge Wells and used that old card to travel to Tonbridge, Sevenoaks and Maidstone and get the third off those journeys which although only small certainly built up in a year to cover the £30 cost. A few trips into London a year the savings would easily cover the cost. Now in 2022 that doesnt exist anymore so for me local trips have become more expensive and because of my age I dont fall into any category for savings as far as I know
Will this work for TFL buses, and are the benefits the same for the 26-30 rail card?
Geoff, great video. It would better if Gold Card benefits were extended system wide. A video about your experience with the "All Line Rover" would be appreciated.
Can confirm that Bromley North and Sundridge park are about 1.5 to 2 minutes apart by train if you have a more aggressive driver, just to compare, a world-class athlete could in theory run from the entrance of one station to the other just as fast as someone starting outside and boarding the train
Wahey Lichfield Trent Valley! Great location to choose. Cheers Matt
What's the most expensive Gold Card you can buy?
TfL annual zones 1-9 travelcard with Shenfield - more than 4k pounds? It is useful though if you live in Greater London and travel a lot as it covers almost all London buses, tube, Overground, DLR, trams and Crossrail.
Worcester to Zones 1-6 is £8400 - can anyone beat that
Norbiton Flyer Is there a Zone 1-9 variant of that? Should be more expensive.
陈北宗 no it’s zone 1 9 + Watford junction
There is a great pub down the road from Lapworth Stn, The Navigation
Summary : just wait until you are old enough for a freedom pass
Not all of us can afford to wait that long!
DaveSuperThomas save up money and freeze yourself until you are 60
Did you look around Lichfield while you were there? Pleasant little city
So what you may find interesting is that whilst working on an online booking tool we use lichfield Trent to city as a cheap way of making a real booking and testing our processes work end to end and not really having to worry about the incurred costs
It's a popular journey in the ticketing industry - we use it to buy test tickets, and test ticket collection facilities on ticket machines. I hate to think how many child singles get sold between Lichfield City and Trent Valley... :-)
Geoff! South western railway
It is SWR now, but SWT did have extra Gold Card benefits... so I think he was sort of right (but out of date).
I don't know why, but Geoff often says 'South West Trains Railways', when it's actually just 'South Western Railway'
I'm now from the south east!!
The Network Railcard does NOT include Ipswich. It only goes as far as Manningtree. I used to have one when I travelled into London on my own frequently in the evenings while I live in Ipswich and split the train tickets in Manningtree. Ipswich station stopped issuing the Network Railcard a few years ago. Ipswich is sadly outside the Network South East area, so there's loads of fare anomalies, which we should do a video about!
I was actually thinking of moving to Ipswich, and still am, but gutted to see it's one stop outside the Network Railcard Map. That's just daft.
But it is in the gold card zone.
@@ChubbyChecker182 it's something to do with the people wanting the intercity service with buffet car at the time of privatisation. There's a recent Ipswich star article about it.
As someone who commutes from Ipswich to Cambridge 2 or 3 days per week season tickets are way too expensive. Flexiseason tickets are due out soon but won't benefit from the gold card. I'm thinking a rejig of the season ticket cost to make the assumption people are doing fewer days travelling to work is the way forward to get more people to take the train for their commute and halt the recent fall in passengers.
Under SWT you used to get 10 free tickets with the gold card to be used anywhere one the SWT network. This was very good. This seems to have disappeared with SWR.
It was six (not ten) free, self-validated Day Rover tickets available for use throughout the South West Trains network on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and Bank Holiday Mondays, but over the years the conditions of use became gradually more restrictive …. for example, at one time they could be used at Peak times on Fridays, but then it suddenly became Off-Peak times only. They were phased out by South Western Railway last year as a money-saving measure, by a franchise which makes a profit of just £20 million a year on a turnover of £1 Billion.
DaveSuperThomas Agree. Was going to mention this but wanted to check someone hadn’t already raised it. I used to buy the Ryde annual season ticket because of the 6 SWT freebies which saved me an absolute fortune. But since the disappearance of these I haven’t bothered. However, good to hear of the Lichfield alternative and as mentioned elsewhere in the comments on here of the Exeter option.
Interesting. The website says you also get "Discounts on journeys to the Isle of Wight using Wightlink, Red Funnel and HoverTravel (when purchased as part of through journey including National Rail)." If I have to take the Isle of Wight ferry/hovercraft frequently, is it therefore cheaper for me to get an annual season card between Exeter St David and Exeter Central so that I get a gold card? Does anyone know how much the ferry discounts are?
Interesting idea! I wish there was a Gold Car for the Manchester, Liverpool and Sheffield area! I love Lapworth Station and the canal junction nearby!
Love Moor Street ❤️
What do we do now ?? Lol.
We got stuck at Banbury, 4hrs on a Sunday. Midland Rail Rover ticket . We were attempting to get to Reading (not on Midland rover) surprisingly the Guard kicked us off at Banbury. I knew we should have gone to Derby that day . Memories of a teenage trainspotter.
😂👍
Anyone know what the cheapest Goldcard is as of Oct 2020? Can’t find any updates online.
Local ticket office *thinks* it’s Hatton-Lapworth (£172), but can’t confirm.
TIA!
Barry Doe looks different....
I’m epileptic and from the first seizure parked my licence at the DVLA and tbh there is a postcode lottery (I am desperate to work full time....the trains are very much lacking in rural areas but best and the buses never get me to work. I’d be happy to only have the 1/3’d off for employment issues. X
My personal technique for saving money was to survive to the age of 60 and buy a Senior railcard. I can even use it to commute for my 2 days/week job (in West Yorkshire, I think the rules are different in the South East).
But I wonder why the UK doesn’t follow the lead of Germany or Switzerland, where anyone can buy a railcard to save money on their travel, if they use the trains frequently. In Switzerland, there is even an all-lines season ticket which is worthwhile if you travel a lot.
Hard to believe now but, between 1957 & 1967, Lapworth was the terminus of an hourly DMU service through Birmingham Snow Hill and along what's now the Midland Metro to Wolverhampton, then all stations to Wellington!
Very interesting, but it sounds a bit complicated. In the Netherlands you can just buy a 40% off peak discount card for the whole network in the country for just £44 per year ;)
Another Fantastic video explaining the pros of rail travel, Hatton is definitely worth the visit, again, out in the sticks but a good place for fast traffic.
Geoff, I don’t suppose you would be doing a video of the opening of the new Worcestershire Parkway would you, as I’d love to join you if you did as I have info on the changes and why this smallish city has two centre stations (Forgate Street & Shrub Hill) and a new outer Parkway station, plus future plans. 👍
I have got it for free with my season London Travelcard (which is, in any case, 2300 £ a year). It's good because you can get a daily travelcard in London zone 1-6 for £ 8.60, however the downside is that many times it doesn't apply the discount, it is only on certain train types.
I’m always on the lookout for the best discounts and can share some great savings tips with you.
Ticketing is changing in South East - Belly Up who run as Greater Anglia Bandits from Liverpool Street are doing away with paper Season Tickets by 31 Oct 18 for contactless Smart Cards.
Many years ago I did similar to get an Annual Season Ticket Holders' Railcard. I had an Manchester Oxford Road to Piccadilly annual one year and Sheffield to Attercliffe another as they were cheapest Annuals. Never lived anywhere near those places.
Best way from New Street to Moor Street is to go up the escalator onto the mezzanine, then all the way round across an enclosed footbridge into the Debenhams and out the other side.
Good timing with this subject - just used an Annual Gold Card to buy a discount single Birmingham - Shrewsbury :-)
At one time the cheapest way to get a cup of coffee in Edinburgh was to buy a first class single from Waverley to Haymarket and then hit the first class lounge at Waverley. The fare has now been withdrawn ...
Geoff, I renewed my Gold Card last October. Will I be able to claim any kind of refund when this C-19 business is over?
Good luck with the channel, at least you have a passion for it. I live on the borders of South Wales, Monmouthshire, Herefordshire. I drive everywhere I go, I really do not care for pubic transport, not at all. Just a personal choice in the matter.
Glad you got the Grand Union Canal in there Geoff, but shame you didn’t get to the Hatton 21 (locks). Great cafe near the top lock and when a bit more time also a rather nice pub.......
I will get a gold card between Tamworth and Birmingham New Street. I also used to have a Disabled Persons Railcard.