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Founders Building, Royal Holloway
Royal Holloway
Egham
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Traveling in and around Egham

Basically , I'm coming to RHUL from Manchester in September (hopefully) and I have no idea how the transport system works down there. How often do students travel by bus (so will I need a weekly/monthly buspass) or is everything within walking distance. Also
, will I need an oyster card ? Or a 16-25 railcard because I'll be visiting home a few times.
Thanks in advance ^_^
You won't need a bus pass, its £1 from the uni to Egham but it's all within walking distance anyway. Staines on the bus is more but its unlikely you'd go often enough to warrant a bus pass!
Founders Building, Royal Holloway
Royal Holloway
Egham
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Reply 2
Original post by swarfliam
You won't need a bus pass, its £1 from the uni to Egham but it's all within walking distance anyway. Staines on the bus is more but its unlikely you'd go often enough to warrant a bus pass!


Ahhhh i see , so generally students walk everywhere ? Even on nights out and stuff ?
Original post by AsheK
Ahhhh i see , so generally students walk everywhere ? Even on nights out and stuff ?




On the whole yes, it is a campus uni after all :smile: you might get the bus down occasionally to Egham, but not enough to warrant considering a bus pass i'd say.
Reply 4
Original post by swarfliam
On the whole yes, it is a campus uni after all :smile: you might get the bus down occasionally to Egham, but not enough to warrant considering a bus pass i'd say.



Okay , thanks for your help ! :smile:
Hi, I'm a current student at Royal Holloway - the buses in Egham are mainly Abellio buses, and a single ticket from Egham station to the campus is £1 as swarfliam mentioned earlier. However, I personally use the Campus Service (operated by the University) which has a frequency of every 25-30 minutes and waits outside Egham station and takes you directly to Founder's. It costs £1 too for a single ticket, but considering the public buses are quite delayed a lot of the time, it is a much better option.

I don't really recommend a bus pass at all, if you are living on campus. You'll probably be going into Egham town centre 1-2 times a week depending on what you need, you're better off paying the £2 for a return ticket each time - it's cheaper than a weekly pass. It takes 15-20 minutes to walk to Egham town centre from Uni, and considering on your way back you're walking up the hill, I would recommend taking the bus.

Oyster Cards are not valid in Egham - the last valid stop is Feltham, which is three stations away. I would strongly recommend a 16-25 Railcard though - I have one myself and it gives you massive savings on your train tickets, definitely worth the investment if you are visiting Manchester often! And while you're at it, invest in the 3-year one, it's cheaper than renewing the 1-year card two times over!

Hope that helps and feel free to ask any further questions :smile: Good luck at Uni!

Original post by AsheK
Basically , I'm coming to RHUL from Manchester in September (hopefully) and I have no idea how the transport system works down there. How often do students travel by bus (so will I need a weekly/monthly buspass) or is everything within walking distance. Also
, will I need an oyster card ? Or a 16-25 railcard because I'll be visiting home a few times.
Thanks in advance ^_^
Reply 6
There aren't many places to go generally. You'll hardly leave Egham and you will only use the bus for up and down the hill. There really isn't much to do except going down to pubs. (This is the reality whatever they tell you about going to London or Windsor)
Reply 7
Original post by TheCommunique
Hi, I'm a current student at Royal Holloway - the buses in Egham are mainly Abellio buses, and a single ticket from Egham station to the campus is £1 as swarfliam mentioned earlier. However, I personally use the Campus Service (operated by the University) which has a frequency of every 25-30 minutes and waits outside Egham station and takes you directly to Founder's. It costs £1 too for a single ticket, but considering the public buses are quite delayed a lot of the time, it is a much better option.

I don't really recommend a bus pass at all, if you are living on campus. You'll probably be going into Egham town centre 1-2 times a week depending on what you need, you're better off paying the £2 for a return ticket each time - it's cheaper than a weekly pass. It takes 15-20 minutes to walk to Egham town centre from Uni, and considering on your way back you're walking up the hill, I would recommend taking the bus.

Oyster Cards are not valid in Egham - the last valid stop is Feltham, which is three stations away. I would strongly recommend a 16-25 Railcard though - I have one myself and it gives you massive savings on your train tickets, definitely worth the investment if you are visiting Manchester often! And while you're at it, invest in the 3-year one, it's cheaper than renewing the 1-year card two times over!

Hope that helps and feel free to ask any further questions :smile: Good luck at Uni!


Thank you so much for the detail , I guess I can cut down how much I allocated for transport on my budget then !

Just one more thing , do I actually need an oyster to get around London (I actually do plan on going there a few times for hairdressers etc ) or is there another way to pay for buses/tube there ?
Reply 8
Original post by Alexok
There aren't many places to go generally. You'll hardly leave Egham and you will only use the bus for up and down the hill. There really isn't much to do except going down to pubs. (This is the reality whatever they tell you about going to London or Windsor)


So students don't really visit Windsor or Staines (correct me if they are the same place) that often ?
Thanks for the insight :smile:
Original post by AsheK
Just one more thing , do I actually need an oyster to get around London (I actually do plan on going there a few times for hairdressers etc ) or is there another way to pay for buses/tube there ?


From Egham you can buy a travel card which costs about 14quid (less with the young person rail card) which gives you unlimited travel within London. It might work out cheaper for some trips to get a return to London and use an Oyster card, but I imagine the travel card will be the cheapest for most cases.

For buses in London you can use NFC debit cards to pay for a single journey at the same cost as Oyster too.
Original post by AsheK
Thank you so much for the detail , I guess I can cut down how much I allocated for transport on my budget then !

Just one more thing , do I actually need an oyster to get around London (I actually do plan on going there a few times for hairdressers etc ) or is there another way to pay for buses/tube there ?


Hi, not a problem - I would recommend getting a Student Oyster Card (the 18+ Oyster) as it will be the cheapest mode of transport and you won't have to spend £14 for the Travelcard if you aren't going to be travelling a lot anyway. I would recommend buying a ticket till Waterloo (the last station from Egham) using your 16-25 Railcard and then use your Student Oyster card from there - it's the cheapest option and you get charged for every bus/tube journey thereon. If you only use buses, you get capped at £4.40 (if I remember rightly) so all the more of a reason if you're going to use buses predominantly!

Unfortunately, post 6th July, buses on TfL went cashless, i.e. you can no longer pay for bus tickets using cash - it has to be Oyster. Hence, getting an Oyster would be your best bet.

Hope that helps :smile:
Reply 11
Original post by TheCommunique
Hi, not a problem - I would recommend getting a Student Oyster Card (the 18+ Oyster) as it will be the cheapest mode of transport and you won't have to spend £14 for the Travelcard if you aren't going to be travelling a lot anyway. I would recommend buying a ticket till Waterloo (the last station from Egham) using your 16-25 Railcard and then use your Student Oyster card from there - it's the cheapest option and you get charged for every bus/tube journey thereon. If you only use buses, you get capped at £4.40 (if I remember rightly) so all the more of a reason if you're going to use buses predominantly!

Unfortunately, post 6th July, buses on TfL went cashless, i.e. you can no longer pay for bus tickets using cash - it has to be Oyster. Hence, getting an Oyster would be your best bet.

Hope that helps :smile:


So I'd basically only need to buy an oyster card then (16-25 railcard comes free with a Santander student bank account apparently) and the occasional £1 bus journey around Egham.
Thank you so much ! This has been extremely helpful ^_^
Original post by AsheK
So students don't really visit Windsor or Staines (correct me if they are the same place) that often ?
Thanks for the insight :smile:


I went to Staines once a week or so, Windsor maybe once a month, same with London. But this really varies between students- you do get some (like Alexok, I guess) who never go to Staines etc., but I also had some friends who'd go to London on a weekly basis. Plus it depends on the time of year too- and whether student loans have just come in. :wink:
Original post by vader9280
Would you guys recommend buying a bike? I doubt there would be separate lanes for them in Egham but is it a good way to go around town?



If you can afford it and think you'd use it enough, sure :smile:

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