Rail commuters saving thousands by not renewing season tickets

Since the start of lockdown in March, the coronavirus crisis has radically changed the scale of public transport use, after Boris Johnson ordered millions of commuters to work from home, in order to stop the spread of the pandemic.

More than 20 of the UK’s largest firms have said that the majority of their employees will continue to work from home “for the foreseeable” future, despite the government changing its official work from home guidance in early August.

In light of that, data published by Bankrate, showed that on average, rail users from commuter towns in London, who buy their tickets on a weekly basis, saved £2,083 ($2,730) — whereas those who bought monthly tickets saved £1,600.

Further north, users from commuter towns in Edinburgh who purchased weekly tickets, managed to save an average of £1,110, compared to the £843 saved by those who bought monthly tickets.

Weekly ticket holders in Bristol saved an average of £1,258, while monthly pas holders managed £966.

Commuters in Manchester, who hold weekly tickets saved the least on average (£592), whereas those with monthly passes save £455, according to the data.

Users with weekly passes from commuter towns in Birmingham saved £674, compared with the £518 saved by people with monthly tickets.

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Overall, users from commuters towns in London saved the most — with users in Peterborough saving a whopping £3,468 over 20 weeks, and monthly ticket holders saving £2,664 over four months.

Weekly ticket holders from Bletchley saved the least, totalling £2,318 over 20 weeks, and user with monthly passes saved just over £1,780 over a four month period.

Compared to London, weekly rail pas holders commuting to Edinburgh saved £1,782 over 20 weeks in Coatbridge (Sunnyside) — whereas monthly ticket users saved £1,368 at most.

In Bristol, commuters from Bridgewater saved £1,596 over 20 weeks, and £1,226 over a four month period. Meanwhile commuters into Bristol from Caldicot saved just £878 over a 20 week period, and monthly ticket users saved just over £674 over four months.

Those travelling into Manchester from Bolton who bought weekly passes saved the least amount of money overall (£536), while monthly ticket users managed £412. Weekly ticket users from Wigan and Rochdale both saved £606, and monthly users £465.50.

Commuters into Birmingham didn’t fare better, with weekly pas holders saving between £718 (Worcester) to £614 (Bromsgrove) — and commuters from Worcester with monthly tickets saving at most £551.60 and users from Bromsgrove saving just £471.60 over a four month period.