Save Money on Your Train Ticket - Method 3

Method 3

You may be lucky enough to work for a company that's happy to arrange some sort of regular instalment arrangement to purchase a yearly train ticket.

What usually happens is your company will agree to fund the initial purchase of your yearly ticket, but will regularly deduct set amounts from your salary, probably each time you get paid. This is a great thing. Not only are yearly train tickets massively cheaper than buying a weekly one for each of the 52 weeks of the year, but also instead of paying for the entire yearly ticket price up front, you're making small regular repayments through the year.

Take for instance a weekly ticket costs $38. Over 52 weeks of the year, this would total $1976. But a yearly would only cost you $1561, calculating to be only $30 each week which your employer would deduct from your paycheck. Now that's a weekly saving of $8!


So which of these 3 methods appeal to you? Certainly method 1 requires some effort and may seem a bit risque, but the other 2 methods are achievable. I've personally been using method 2 for a couple of years and haven't looked back!

Save Money on Your Train Ticket - Method 2

Method 2

When do most people buy their train tickets? Usually in the morning before they step on the train to go to work I hear you say. And in most cases, they would buy a weekly ticket because it is more cost-effective than buying a daily return fare for the 5 work days. Better still, if you also happened to use the train on weekends, you'll get even more out of the weekly ticket.

Ok, so having bought it on Monday morning, the weekly ticket would last until next Sunday. Not bad. But were you aware that if you bought the weekly ticket on the way home from work in the late afternoon, you'll get an extra half day on the ticket for free?

This means if you bought it Monday evening, it would last until next Monday. Sounds almost like a whole extra day on that weekly ticket! But how would I get to work on the first Monday morning?

Simple... just buy a single ticket. Will that really save me money?

Consider this: in your average month, there are 4 weeks. If you were to buy a weekly each Monday morning, you would have to buy 4 weekly tickets that month. For me, a weekly costs me $38, so that's $152 per month. Now let's consider the alternative.

If I buy a single ticket for $5.20 on Monday morning, I then have to buy a weekly on Monday evening for $38. This means the next time I need to buy a ticket is Tuesday morning. Again, I would purchase a single ticket in the morning and a weekly in the evening. The following week, I would purchase the single ticket on Wednesday morning and the weekly in the evening. And the week after that, I would purchase the single ticket on Thursday morning and the weekly that evening.

Now that's 4 weeks gone, and my 4th weekly ticket which I bought on the Thursday will last me not just that week, but until Thursday of the 5th week. It sounds as though I've bought myself an extra 4 days just by buying 4 single tickets for $20.80 all up. So does that mean if I followed this method and bought another single ticket the Friday morning of the 5th week, I've effectively bought 5 days worth of travel for $26? That certainly sounds better than paying $38 for a weekly that I'd mostly be using for 5 days anyhow! Can you see how I've just saved $12 over 5 weeks by simply changing the way I buy my train tickets?

In tomorrow’s article, learn how to save money on your yearly train ticket by making your boss fork up for it first.

Save Money on Your Train Ticket - Method 1

Fed up with CityRail trains running late? Sick of how you always seem to get the stinking hot carriages with no air-conditioning when the day is 35 degrees? There are some things we can't change about the Sydney metropolitan rail system, but there are certainly ways we can make the most out of what we have.

Being someone who loves to find easy ways to save money and a regular train commuter, I just know there must be a way to save money when catching the train. I soon found a number of powerful ways to do just that and will show you 3 of those ways.

Method 1

A number of years ago, I was a uni student commuting to and from uni in the city to the home in the suburbs. Uni students as we know, are not the wealthiest demographic on the planet. In a way, it's a blessing.

Being a uni student having a student card usually always gives you immediate access to major discounts on many many things. One of those things is the humble train ticket.

When I was attending uni, I was able to get a concession on my train tickets, which would only cost me about half the full price of a normal ticket. Since then, things haven't changed much with this concession benefit, so students are still enjoying majorly discounted train travel. But what happens to the concession benefit once you've graduated I hear you ask?

Wouldn't I lose it because I'm no longer a uni student?

Well some people continue with post-graduate studies, and if you enrol in just enough subjects each semester, you'll continue to qualify for the train concession. Not bad.

But let's just say you happened to enrol in some subjects enough to qualify for the train concession, but within the first couple of weeks, decided those subjects weren't really for you. You decide to withdraw from them, and lo and behold, you still hold the train concession. The university's administration office has forgotten to ask for your train concession back. Oh well. I guess you'll just have to make use of it when you by your weekly train ticket to work now don't you? Hmm.... =)

In tomorrow’s article, find out how you can save money on your train ticket by not buying it in the morning.