On 24 Sep 2009 at 11:47am Angry Commuter wrote:
If you want to buy a season ticket from Lewes to London Victoria, you can (at a cost of £3264). This also used to apply to London Bridge commuters.
However, Southern Trains have abolished the London Bridge season ticket and replaced it with an All London Terminals season ticket - and raised the price by a massive 10%. So if you commute to London Bridge from Lewes (or from the stations down the line to Eastbourne), it will now cost you 10% more than previously. But no price increase if you go to Victoria. No Lewes - London Bridge season ticket is available any more, they have "discontinued" it.
London Bridge is nearer, and both the direct trains there from Lewes each weekday morning are busy. So why should it cost an extra 300 per year?
Freakin' rip off.
On 24 Sep 2009 at 12:40pm knackered commuter wrote:
I think I heard - tho' I could be wrong - that the Victoria ticket is 'Southern only', whereas the London Terminals ticket is by 'any means necessary'. I wouldn't be surprised if this was something to do with a dispute between FCC and Southern, because of the difficulty of policing Southern only ticket users on FCC for the hop between London Bridge and East Croydon. In other words, the London Terminals ticket is the going rate, and the Victoria ticket is a special Southern 'bargain' price. Look on the bright side - they'll all be going down by 0.0001% in January because of the RPI link.
I know that some Lewes people used to get a fair bit cheaper ticket from Cooksbridge which specifically said 'not valid on Gatwick Express', but they don't do that one anymore either.
On 24 Sep 2009 at 1:34pm Commuter wrote:
No it isn't Southern only, I have a London Victoria season ticket and I can use it on Gatwick Express trains for example. I didn't realise London Bridge commuters don't have a ticket similar to the Vic one. I agree it is a total rip off!
On 24 Sep 2009 at 1:42pm Sherlock wrote:
Presumably this is one of the benefits of the 'competition' that private ownership is based on. I mean, we can always use another company's trains to get from Lewes to London, can't we? Any Tories want to come on here and support privatisation? Any Labour supporters want to come on and explain why the government didn't take the railways back into public ownership?
On 24 Sep 2009 at 1:44pm Merlin Milner wrote:
£38.50 return to Victoria (including tube) at 'peak' times is a rip-off. As someone who works in the office, Wembley, 2 days per week and at home the other 3 days has meant that I drive to Wembley for those 2 days. I want to go by rail but it is nearly 3 times more expensive.
On 24 Sep 2009 at 1:53pm knackered commuter wrote:
Sorry Merlin, I don't believe you. I'm not saying £38.50 isn't a rip-off, but I don't believe you can travel a car journey of what - 180-200 miles, including insurance, car tax, MoT, maintenance, depreciation etc for a third of thirty eight quid.
What I wish they would do is issue an Oyster card type thing so that I could get a discount for buying a ticket for multiple journeys, but wouldn't pay for the days I work at home.
On 24 Sep 2009 at 2:16pm Brictonbelle wrote:
I have to travel into town 3 days a week and have been buying daysave flexi tcikets - you buy 5 at a time, book the days of travel online, use southern only trains into victoria or london bridge. Then use the oyster card - or theres a 3day zoned travelcard that could work out a lot cheaper to wembley.
Having said all that I can;t book the daysave tix at the mo cos their website keeps falling over.
On 24 Sep 2009 at 2:48pm No Pot Pourri wrote:
I think Wembley return is about 160 miles. If Merlin uses the Fiat 500 he may do it with 4 gallons. £5 per gallon = 20. Same again for wear and depreciation (it is taxed and MOTed in any case). I think he is about even.
On 24 Sep 2009 at 4:17pm Angry Commuter wrote:
My point being that at a time of financial pressures, I suddenly have to stump up an extra £300 / year whilst my company is potentially discussing reducing people's working hours. I wouldn't mind if the service was 10% faster, or there were an extra couple of trains each week, or they restored the 5.40 which they stopped...
On 24 Sep 2009 at 4:37pm Merlin Milner wrote:
OK it is a company car. Diesel use costs me roughly between £13 and 15 return. Monthly company car tax is about 45 per month. The Fiat is one of the lowest for tax and emissions and one of the highest for economy. I get 53mpg average for all my driving. The best I have got on the motorway is 64mpg.
OK perhaps not threefold difference, but more than twofold.
Brictonbelle thanks for the tip. National rail enquiries do not seem to mention the flexi tickets and therefore assumed that I would be limited to normal season tickets. However I have to be in Wembley at 08.30, is the flexi OK for peak time travel? Rail travel has become over complicated.
On 24 Sep 2009 at 5:14pm knackered commuter wrote:
Angry Commuter - ah, but you can't deny the sheer fluffy luxury of the Gatwick Express coaches they've put on, compared to the normal ones.
Even if the air conditioning doesn't work on hot days but gets stuck on freezing when it's cold outside.
On 24 Sep 2009 at 8:46pm Brixtonbelle wrote:
Yes Merlin - the flexi is available peaktime - but you can only use southern trains. I work shifts so sometimes have to take the earliest, sometimes the later, so it works out well for me. Probably about the same price per day as a season ticket, but great for those of us not on 5-day weeks. Have to say the trains are SO much nicer than being crammed onto the Victoria / Northern/ Jubilee line, I actually enjoy my commute !
On 24 Sep 2009 at 10:49pm My Bleeding Heart wrote:
All you dfl's moaning about the train fare, whatever next. Move back! How much do you earn 'up in town'? The answer is plenty, or you wouldn't go. So shut up. One train company, no choice, tough. Take a pay cut and work locally you greedy cuunts.
On 25 Sep 2009 at 6:30am UPTHEROOKS wrote:
My Bleeding heart, you sound like a delightful chap... Ive lived in Lewes all my life but work and commute to London by train. What does that make me i wonder? Greedy? Get of your horse and lose this DFL crap.. Its boring.
On 25 Sep 2009 at 6:54am Spongebob wrote:
"My bleeding heart".....love it 
On 25 Sep 2009 at 7:47am Annette Curtin-Twitcher wrote:
While I don't agree with the way MBH has expressed himself, I do get rather tired of the way commuters whinge on about commuting. Imo it's the price you pay for collecting London wages while living in Lewes, and if you don't like it, move nearer work or work nearer home.
On 25 Sep 2009 at 10:22am Joe Kerr wrote:
And no one has mentioned yet the Gatwick Express service from Lewes in the morning that doesn't even stop at Gatwick. Love it. Even better that there are only 2 doors per carriage so that it takes ages to get on & off. Marvellous.
On 25 Sep 2009 at 10:30am Brixtonbelle wrote:
That argument would work if Lewes was cheaper than London - but it isn't - look at the house prices ! It's not as if all the local shops are cheaper either. I don't understand this attitude - it's obvious that living in the south east is just more expensive generally. Of course I could give up my job in London and get a job round here - if there were any ( I hear there are some at the local council ...). It's more than likely that with the current economic crisis many of us will lose our jobs, and then we'll have people complaining yet again of people sponging off benefits. You sound like a very bitter and twisted man MBH. You should get out more.
On 25 Sep 2009 at 10:45am Spongebob wrote:
"Brixtonbelle"....why should someone be classed as bitter and twisted for having an opinion and saying something he thinks is right. I suppose you're going to pull the Racist card next or the "do you belong to the BNP" card. f*****g idiot.
On 25 Sep 2009 at 11:42am Ed Can Do wrote:
Er, house prices round here are so high because of all the Londoners buying them up with their inflated salaries. If anything, Southern are doing locals a favour by making working in London while living on the coast less attractive.
On 25 Sep 2009 at 12:06pm brixtonbelle wrote:
I don't suppose many Lewesians mind selling their houses at the inflated prices...but of course if Lewes wants to live in a bubble without any incomers it could just cut off the train line altogether and try to exist without all the 'new' money.
Oh and anyone who thinks swearing at a stranger on a message board is a cogent argument is strangely deluded.
On 25 Sep 2009 at 1:15pm oldcynic wrote:
Do you think it is at all possible to have an agrument on this forum witjout it becoming a slanging match and needing to call each other nasty names
On 25 Sep 2009 at 1:40pm Penguin wrote:
Not where Spongebob is concerned. Its the only way he/she/it knows.
On 25 Sep 2009 at 2:05pm brixtonbelle wrote:
I think the clue is in the name. I don't believe sponges have brains.
On 25 Sep 2009 at 5:42pm Resume wrote:
Please don't expect any mature discussion on this forum, strictly juveniles here. Shame really.
On 25 Sep 2009 at 5:53pm Spongebob wrote:
I thought you was leaving this forum "Resume" Byeeeeeee
On 25 Sep 2009 at 9:03pm Angry Commuter wrote:
I am sick and tired of the comments aimed at commuters. True, I work in London because the money is slightly higher than in Lewes. However £87,000 pa is hardly a kings ransome these days. Take off the season ticket and the 40% tax on 55,000 and that doesn't go far. Granted, my house in the Wallands was paid for by the London property boom, but have you any idea how much the fees are at LOG? Add in the Audi for the missus and the skiing trip and you can see I'm not that much better off than most of the inbreds.
If things get much tighter I'll have to stop dining at Pelham House for gods sake.
On 25 Sep 2009 at 9:46pm Honest Ron (no relation) wrote:
Sherlock - spot on result of privatisation
ACT - GET REAL - how many employers in Lewes pay enough for staff to afford Lewes house prices?
MBH - grow up
Spongebob - you really are an @rse
Joe Kerr - the 07:44 "Flying Pig" is a gem - it takes so long to fill that the staff are always blowing their whistles before the bl00dy doors are open to let people off - also has been retimed as a result to leave earlier (and still arrive in the smoke on time)
On 25 Sep 2009 at 10:45pm Merry commuter wrote:
Spot on Honest Ron. If I wasn't so p*ssed from all this Krug I've been drinking on my vastly inflated London salary, I would add a more sensible comment. But as it stands, that will have to wait until tomorrow. Hic. 
On 25 Sep 2009 at 11:20pm Cool Commuter wrote:
Angry Commuter - I didn't realise there were poor people living in Lewes. £87,000pa? What are you? A dustman or solicitor or some lowly job like that? My company provides a chauffer who gets me to London at 9.30 on the dot and is there waiting for me at 3 after lunch to get me home again.
On 25 Sep 2009 at 11:49pm Brixtonbelle wrote:
Solution. The DFL's all give up their London jobs and take a job locally that would have gone to a Lewesian born and bred, hey presto, there will be no more complaints on this thread.
Sorry, What was that, Spongebob, MBH and ACT ? - you don't want outsiders taking your jobs ??
On 26 Sep 2009 at 12:42am Tubbs wrote:
This is a decent town and a local shop, we'll have no trouble here!
On 26 Sep 2009 at 6:09pm Annette Curtin-Twitcher wrote:
It'd be better if they all sold their houses and moved nearer to their city jobs!
Actually, I didn't assume that all commuters are DFLs. There are many Lewesians who take the London shilling, I'm sure, because jobs in town are so much better paid than local jobs. So they can afford to pay the fares imo.
On 27 Sep 2009 at 5:08pm knackered commuter wrote:
Unfortunately, since I'm neither a holistic reflexologist nor do I write crap screenplays for BBC4, I find myself unable to find work in Lewes. Perhaps I should just open an organic coffee shop?
As it goes, I'm an evil architect and, as you all know, since building work isn't permitted in Lewes because we must all try and make the place look just as it did in 1910, I have no choice but to rape and pillage the planet from afar.
On 27 Sep 2009 at 5:36pm Working in Lewes, Lovely wrote:
Best you get to bed KC, you seem a little tired and irritable. Up early tommorrow, like always heheheheheheh...........
On 28 Sep 2009 at 1:52am Another commuter wrote:
Try the council planning dept - apparently everyone who works there is a lazy b****r so you could continue your architecture whilst passing a few more dodgy applications. No one would know.
On 28 Sep 2009 at 8:14am Intrigued wrote:
Is it true that architects design erections to compensate for their own inadequacies?
On 28 Sep 2009 at 9:34am knackered commuter wrote:
Intrigued - golly that's a new one! Not heard that before, ever. Would it please you to know I drive a sports car, too?
On 28 Sep 2009 at 6:23pm Annette Curtin-Twitcher wrote:
You could always retrain, KC. There are often job vacancies at Lewes prison, the county council often advertise for staff (especially social workers) and it's damn near impossible to get a decent cleaner.
Of course, you'd have to sacrifice your big fat London architect's salary. You may find the tiresome, expensive journey is worth it after all.
On 28 Sep 2009 at 11:55pm knackered commuter wrote:
Truth told, Annette, I like my job, my London salary and I don't find the journey particularly tiresome or expensive on the whole. Gives me time to read and a bit of mental space of my own. No complaints here, I'm afraid.
On 29 Sep 2009 at 5:24am Brixtonbelle wrote:
Can't believe the amount of envious comments about huge London salaries. Are you lovely Lewesians really so blinkered you think anyone who works in London earns a huge pile of dosh ? Get real and get out of the Lewes bubble more.
On 29 Sep 2009 at 8:19am Annette Curtin-Twitcher wrote:
I think you'll find that the average London salary is significantly higher than the average Lewes salary. And East Sussex as a whole is a relatively low wage area.