Money saving tips for London train commuters

Since about now is a popular time to renew season tickets to miss the Jan fare rise, two - hopefully useful - tips. 
1. If your season is an Annual Travelcard costing GBP 1500 or more, buy it at Marylebone Station from the Chiltern ticket office. It then counts as a qualifying season for unlimited weekend travel on the entire Chiltern network. 
2. If your season is an Annual Travelcard, it'll come with a Network Gold card giving you a third off some fares on trains in the South East. However, it won't be coded onto your Oyster card, so you won't get a third off cash Oyster fares (eg the extension fare charged when travelling beyond your Zones). Go to an Underground ticket office (where they exist) or a roving member of staff (where they don't), ask nicely and they'll sort you out.

New Rail Journey Planner

Fares supremo Barry Doe is recommending www.fastjp.com - see Rail Magazine 786. This is by Paul Kelly and Nick Brown, the creators of Trainsplit.com the website which can find you significant fare savings by showing you where to spilt your ticket (NOT your journey).

Barry continues to recommend brfares.com, but future plans for fastjp are for "a major new system that will incorporate fares as well [as times]".

I like the fact that up to 5 start and/or end stations can be specified - useful for those times when there is more than one convenient station at either end of your journey (though places like (say) Manchester with several stations called Manchester something are - as is usual - grouped together as if one station  as an alternative to the separate stations.)

Barry dislikes the fact that most train fare websites constrain you to entering journey times, even if you plan to buy an "any time" ticket. We look forward to a site that allows the user to select ticket types before train times, if s/he wishes.