Great Western Coffee Shop

I am planning to relocate to the Abergavenny area (back home!) in spring 2014, but for work reasons I will need to spend around three nights a week in London. Therefore I am looking into options for weekly commuting between Abergavenny and London Paddington.

Does anyone out there make this journey regularly and if so do you have any tips on making the train journey more convenient and specifically affordable? I have been pretty horrified at the price of standard tickets, especially at peak hours which is when I would have to travel. Advance tickets seem to be much more affordable but naturally allow no flexibility.

Any tips would be gratefully received - thanks in advance!

Craig

Welcome to the forum LondonWelsh. An interesting poser, and I'm sure you'll get some good suggestions.

According to the AA, Bristol Parkway is 42 miles and an hour away. That might be a more convenient railhead for you, although traffic and parking can be a problem in the morning, depending on what time you would get there.

Indeed welcome.

It is a shame the morning through service from Abergavenny to Paddington no longer runs.  (Not that there was a return service anyway)

However as John R says making the trip to Bristol Parkway, or even possibly Newport, might be an idea.  The direct services from Hereford do seem to suffer reliability problems, often getting delays in excess of 15 minutes in the mornings.

The Anytime Return valid for travel at peak times for Abergavenny to London Terminals (from 2nd January 2014) is ^203.00.

From your OP I gather you will only be making one return journey a week so a Season Ticket will not yield any savings. If you can fix your travel plans then it's likely that Advance Purchase (AP) fares will be the cheapest option. It may even be worth buying a couple of APs in each direction to give flexibility, and just discarding the unused ones. This can often be cheaper than the Anytime Return, and sometimes cheaper than an Off Peak Return.

Your actual travel times will determine what will be the cheapest/most flexible option. It may be that a combination of an Advance Purchase ticket in one direction and a walk-up ticket in the other is the best option.

Finally, splitting tickets along the route of your journey may also yield savings. A popular split point for journeys into Paddington is Didcot Parkway. It must be remembered that, unless one of your tickets in the split is a Season Ticket, then any trains you catch must call at the split points. From South Wales to London, splitting at Didcot, will limit your weekday journey options into and out of Paddington to approximately one service an hour to/from Newport that calls at Didcot.

One split ticket option I've found is (2014 prices):

Abergavenny-Swindon Anytime Return ^27.00
Swindon-Didcot Parkway Anytime Day Single* ^21.50
Didcot Parkway-London Paddington Anytime Day Single* ^29.60
London Paddington-Didcot Parkway Anytime Day Single* ^29.60
Didcot Parkway-Swindon Anytime Day Single* ^21.50

Total: ^129.20. Which is quite a saving on the through fare of ^203.00

*There's no Anytime (period) Return for these parts of the split.

Note that a superoffpeak single, Didcot to Swindon, at ^9.40 is valid at any time after 09:30 on Mondays to Fridays.


I also look at Abergavenny to Worcester (20 pounds each way) plus 74 Worcester to London return ...

All these are 2013 prices (my database not yet updated) but you get the drift

Good call, although it's actually valid after 1030. That brings my split suggestions (2014 prices) down to:

Abergavenny-Swindon Anytime Return ^27.00
Swindon-Didcot Parkway Anytime Day Single* ^21.50
Didcot Parkway-London Paddington Anytime Day Single* ^29.60
London-Paddington-Didcot Parkway Anytime Day Single* ^29.60
Didcot Parkway-Swindon Super Off Peak Single* ^9.70

Total: ^117.40. Further savings may be possible if the return journey from Paddington can be made before 1600 or after 1915.
 
*There's no Anytime (period) Return for these parts of the split.

I think that in theory, and for an extra ^1.30, you can replace the Didcot - Paddington and Paddington - Didcot tickets with Cholsey - Paddington and Paddington - Cholsey tickets, and add a one week season from Cholsey to Didcot. You then don't have to worry about intermediate stops at all - just line of route. In practise, I would not recommend this extra split to people of nervous disposition / worriers, as it's sufficiently obscure a condition (18c, I recall!) as to be not universally understood

I have a Cotswold Line Railcard, it cost me ^7.50 and gives me 1/3 off on off peak return tickets between Worcester Foregate Street and Oxford, also valid at week ends and on bank holidays. See the First Great Western web site for more information.

What I continue to find remarkable about the Coffee Shop forum is just how helpful our members can be, to any newcomer with a question.  :-[

Welcome to the forum, Craig ('LondonWelsh' - an excellent team!) and thanks to our members for their very prompt and detailed guidance posted here!  :D

Hi Craig, I would recommend avoiding the Cotswold line via Worcester unless you can be productive on the train. (although FGW don't yet have Wifi)

Services are slow, get delayed due to single track and often switched to lower quality stock the minute a train fails.
I would drive to Bristol Parkway if I were you.

Source: a ex- regular user of the Cotswold line (there is at least one other ex user on this forum!)

Thanks so much for all of the extremely helpful replies (and the welcomes). These responses are wonderful - it would probably have taken me months to find out all of this myself.

It's looking like the best option may be to use the Abergavenny-Newport-Paddington route, using advance tickets where possible, and splitting the journey as suggested when advance tickets are not available. Thanks for that tip - I had no idea that journeys can be made significantly less expensive by being split up.

I'm aware that the Worcester/Cotswold route is lengthy and slower, so I'll probably save that one for sightseeing trips. Driving to Bristol Parkway could also be an option (will check ticket prices), but the downside would be that I would be at the mercy of the M4 and the Severn Crossing (not to mention parking at the station itself).

Thanks again for the really helpful tips,

Craig

 

Though note that a) wi-fi is now on it's way, with the new franchise and b) it's very unlikely that the early morning departures from Hereford would be replaced by Turbos.

I'm surprised you didn't suggest Warwick Parkway  ;D

Well, even I know that Chiltern can't save everyone! :P :'(

But having looked, it's STILL QUICKER THAN THE COTSWOLD LINE.  :o :o :o :o

1 hour 40 minutes drive, 5 mins to park, 1 hour 15 minute train journey. = 3 hours  ;D

It's over 3 hours to Hereford on the Cotswold, you'd be home!

Fancy leaving a car in a station car park from Monday to Friday?  Bit of a waste of money owning such a car if you only use it 2 times a week.  How much do they charge for parking?

^26 for a weekly ticket. Remember that Chiltern let you park for free if 3 people are in the car or if it is electric.

(Some commuters used to park at Hanborough station for free, carshare to Hadd & Thame Parkway, park for free and take Chiltern in to London.)

BTLine -There is no free parking at Hanborough - its ^3.00 a day and has been since last July.

Add that to the fare then.  Even then a car is very expensive if you only use it twice a week and leave it in a car park miles from where you are for most of that time.

No-one is suggesting that anyone commutes Abergav to London via Warwick.  ::)

I was pointing out that the Cotswold line is now so slow, it is quicker to drive all the way to Warwick and use Chiltern. This is true for most Cotswold stations.