The Commuting Dilemma

I like to cycle to work, but it is not convenient every day of the week, especially on days when it is very rainy or windy, or I need a cleanly pressed shirt, or have something on in London afterwards.

So how do I not get hosed by the cost of commuting? These are the prices for an array of travel options over the course of a week.

Currently, Oyster is not available on South West Trains, a situation which may change in January, but this has been promised for quite some time (I registered my Oyster card back in 2003 and have commuted to Old Street, Putney, Farringdon, Embankment, and spent 3 years in Calgary since then).

The cheapest way to get between Earlsfield (or any other Zone 3 train network station) and Kings Cross (or any other zone 1 station) would be to take 2 buses on a daily basis. The 77 to Waterloo, then the 59 up to Kings Cross. At rush hour this weighs in at 90 minutes; 3 hours daily commute, at an average of about 11 miles per hour and total commute cost of £20.

There must be a faster option than this, but then you need to pay for it. A weekly Zone 1 to 3 travelcard currently costs £30.20, and this will increase shortly. The travelcard opens up the train and tube lines.

The frequency of both is good at rush hour, but the carriages of both are full at best, regularly packed, and around once or twice per week, a delay will make one or two travel legs overcrowded with some trains inaccessible.

Any sane person would only want to do this journey a few times a week, but then the issue again becomes cost.

From the above chart, it appears that the best 'hedging strategy' is to buy a fixed weekly train pass between Earlsfield and the Zone 1 hub Vauxhall. This 8 minute journey costs £2.10 as a single, £3.70 as a return and £13.20 for a week... The maths here is already slightly baffling, and I studied quantum physics. Buying a week's pass saves you at least £7.80 on single tickets - but, only if you use all 10 of those trips. Still with me?

That £13.20 would only get me as far as Vauxhall though, with another 3 or 4 central London miles to cross before I can sit at my desk and start to computer all sorts of other things.

In addition to that fixed cost, I then to have a "Pay as you go" Oyster card (PAYG) with money on it, and tap in at Vauxhall and out at Kings Cross. At £1.60 this is miraculously good value still.

Everything unravels if Vauxhall is having a bad day, as there is no plan B from there. A bus from Vauxhall heads loosely in the direction of north, but not particularly quickly.

In order to help myself out, I have used another chart... How do I make sure I don't pay more than the £30.20 travelcard costs or pay over the odds?

Now if I wanted to ride 1 day, I should probably go for then weekly Earlsfield to Vauxhall and then PAYG it from there to KX. This would cost £26.00, and save the hassle of buying tickets every day. The psychology of the "free ride when you've already paid" also comes into the picture, as often, the ticket barriers at Earlsfield are open. I don't condone paying without a ticket although I think my credit with TFL ticket buying karma is good.

Murphy's Law says that as soon as you get a week long pass, the clouds will part and the rest of the week will be blissfully sunny, and the Tubes will be subject to delays, strikes, passenger incidents etc.

To keep further bike riding still an option, daily returns with PAYG Oyster tickets are the best option. This does involve a calculated risk that the weekend will not require any trips into central London. The total weekly cost for one day bike ride, and 4 days train and tube would be £27.60

Riding can be very pretty, but does come at a slightly not free cost though, as inner tubes cost £4.50 each, and a bike, lock and helmet will set you back a few hundred quid too!

Charting this would then need to factor in my consultancy costs :)