I’m not scared to commit, but I don’t want an annual train ticket

I certainly would, however I need, like many, to add the cost of the underground into that.

Then again, it’s not often that I consider such a large outlay up front when I don’t know if I am going to be ill, work from home or take a holiday in that time.

Yes, absolutely! I think it’s a great idea to offer these tickets. For example, people who are on contract work or who aren’t sure if they’ll be in their job for a full year could buy shorter tickets. You’d be annoyed to fork out for a year’s ticket to London only to find that your next contract was in Birmingham, for instance.

It would also help those whose workplaces don’t run initiatives like season ticket loan schemes. I know I couldn’t afford to buy a full annual ticket without help, and many will be in the same boat, so might be stuck with weekly or monthly passes, missing out on bigger savings they could have had with, for instance, a 3 month pass.

I am a fan of annual tickets, even though there is always the fear you won’t use it. I stopped work for a bit and found I was paying almost as much on Oyster pay-as-you-go per week, even off peak, plus the time I’d take to calculate what is the best value (should I take the bus or train? Which buses?). I think that even with rail season tickets you can get free bus travel if you show the driver, though I may be mistaken.

In addition, if you get an annual ticket in the South East network you get a Gold Card, which means myself and up to three others can get a third-off off-peak travel in the south east area, and I think I have saved a good sum with that.

But going back to your main point, yes, I found it odd that train companies don’t offer better savings, particularly as by getting an annual I am effectively travelling on ‘old’ fares as soon as a price rise comes in.

At the moment an annual is the equivalent 12 monthlies less six weeks’ free travel, plus (as with all season tickets) you get the equivalent of free weekend travel. How about a six month travel card gives you the equivalent of three weeks free, that would be fairer as you wouldn’t be getting the Gold Card.

Without a doubt, train companies should start offering shorter season ticket options. In the current climate, a year IS a long time to commit to – but in particular, it can cost season ticket holders a lot of money.

For example, a number of workplaces offer an interest free season ticket loan, which is brilliant. It spreads the costs of your annual ticket across 12 months and overall, reduces your costs. But – if you decide you want a refund on your season ticket at any point, the train companies don’t necessarily split the value of your ticket into 12 even chunks like your employer does. Let me give a quick example (based on my own personal experience).

> I bought an annual season ticket from my hometown to London at the cost of £3560.
> If I’d bought the same tickets monthly, the total cost would’ve come to £4101.60 – giving me a cost saving of £541.60 over the year.
> My employer deducted £296.67 a month out of my pay for 12 months to cover the cost – yet after 10 months, I left my job and no longer required my season ticket.
> I had to pay back the remaining cost of the loan to my employer from my final pay – a deduction of £593.30.
> Yet – when I went to the train company and asked for a refund on the remaining term of my season ticket (2 months), they could only offer me approximately £99. This is a lot different to the £593.30 I hoped for.

My train company explained that they divide the cost of the annual season ticket (£3560) by the cost of a full-price monthly ticket (£341.80) to get the number of months your ticket has ‘value’ – (in this case, around ten and a half months) and then the rest is considered to be ‘free’ (representing your discount).

To conclude this enormous comment – if you have a season ticket loan and don’t end up using the it for the whole term, you could end up losing out financially.