Commuting to Colchester (from London)twice a week.. anyone knows any fares discount??

hi,

i am going to start my MA in Psycholinguistics this October. Its part time programme (2 years) and will need to make my way from London each time.. :s-smilie:

Does anyone know about any rail pass/discounts for part time postgraduate student? Does university issue that sort of card?

Thanks in advance..
verenis

Reply 1

Crosseyed And Painless

Original post by verenis

hi,

i am going to start my MA in Psycholinguistics this October. Its part time programme (2 years) and will need to make my way from London each time.. :s-smilie:

Does anyone know about any rail pass/discounts for part time postgraduate student? Does university issue that sort of card?

Thanks in advance..
verenis

Hi verenis!

Trains/Underground:
Are you still under 24/25? Up until the day before your 24th birthday, you can buy a 3 year 16-25 Railcard. If you're 25, you can buy a 1 year 16-25 Railcard until the day before your 26th birthday. You'll save 33%. You can also apply this Railcard to your Oyster card for discounted tube travel at certain times of day. Unfortunately you can only get this as a 26+ student if you are studying full-time.

If you're 26 or over, and won't need to travel before 10am (so if your classes start after ~12), a Network Railcard would be of use.

If neither of these apply and you're struggling with the costs, contact the university to see if they can offer you any support with travel. And remember if you're having to commute for reasons related to a disability you might be able to get help with travel costs as part of DLA, and a disabled railcard.

Also sign up to the Greater Anglia mailing list, as I've occasionally had discounts from them and every little helps.

Buses:
If you can get a railcard, you can use it to buy PlusBus when buying your rail ticket. This works out at £2.30 a day with your railcard (£3.45 w/out), for unlimited bus travel on First, Network Colchester and Hedingham Omnibus routes.
Your other option for bus travel in the annual First Unicard - it's £129, so it's a really good deal, and potentially cheaper depending how many weeks a year you have to come in. However, there is the upfront lump cost, and you can't use the 133 bus run by Network Colchester.

Practicality:
I commuted and although it can be cheaper to prebook advance tickets online if you can afford the extra, I would advise you to buy day returns at Liverpool St (or book generously late, if you're prebooking on a particular train - the buses and traffic in Colchester aren't always great, and I've missed trains in the past, even leaving myself over an hour from uni to the station. And then you have to pay for another ticket and feel rotten.). If you've got the time, advance tickets do work out cheaper (and you mightn't mind the extra time for reading/coursework), but on cold, wet and dark December afternoons, sitting in the waiting room for an hour in damp clothes wasn't worth the savings for me.

And because the buses and trains are unreliable (often timetabled buses would never show up), especially in winter, to guarantee I'd get in for 9am lectures I ended up having to get the 6:25 train (sit on the right hand side of the train if you're coming in early, because dawn over East Anglia is a lovely thing!) - although if you don't mind being potentially late, the 7:08 train on paper should link up with the 8:15 bus and get you to campus for 8:43. In theory - I've tried this train and failed to get in on time.

And if you can, let your lecturers/supervisor/etc know you're commuting from afar (including what time you leave the house), and so would really appreciate advance notice of any class cancellations.