Season Tickets are available for most short and medium distance journeys on the National Rail network. Season Tickets are not generally available for long distance journeys, but maybe available where a train company chooses to offer them.

To find out if a Season Ticket is available for your chosen journey, use our Season Ticket Calculator

For very long journeys, an All Line Rail Rover Ticket can work out a lot cheaper than buying individual tickets and gives the added bonus of unlimited Off-peak travel anywhere on the National Rail Network. They are available for periods of 7 or 14 days - more information can be found on our Special Offers page.

Travelcard Season Tickets can be used on most of London's public transport network including National Rail, London Underground, DLR, London Buses and London Trams services.

The Travelcard area is shown on the London Rail & Tube map. Customers must have a National Rail issued Photocard in support of any 7-Day Travelcard purchased from a National Rail ticket office or ticket vending machine on magnetic stripe (orange) ticket stock. For information on Travelcard Season Tickets held on Oyster, see Oyster & Travelcards page

Please Note: Travelcards are not valid on Southeastern High Speed services between St Pancras International and Stratford International

For travel only within the London Travelcard area

If your journey is entirely within the London Travelcard area, Travelcard Season Tickets offer unlimited travel anytime within the chosen Travelcard Zones on National Rail (including London Overground and TfL Rail), London Underground, DLR, London Buses, and London Trams (valid throughout the Tram network when Travelcard is valid in Zone 3, 4, 5 or 6 or any combination of these Zones) services for the period for which the ticket is valid. The London Rail & Tube Map shows the extent of all the Zones.​​​​​​​

For Travelcard Season Ticket prices use our Season Ticket Calculator. You can also view the full range of zonal fares on the Transport for London website.

For travel from a station outside the London Travelcard area

If you start your commute from a station outside the Travelcard area, your Travelcard Season Ticket offers unlimited travel between your starting station and the Zone 6 boundary of the Travelcard area (on the route shown on your Travelcard), plus unlimited travel on National Rail (including London Overground and TfL Rail), London Underground, DLR, London Buses, and London Trams (valid throughout the Tram network when Travelcard is valid in Zone 3, 4, 5 or 6 or any combination of these Zones) within your chosen Zones, for the period for which your ticket is valid. Travelcard Season Tickets can be issued for a minimum of two adjacent Zones and must include Zone 6.

You can now buy your train season ticket and your bus season ticket at the train station in just one easy transaction – saving you time and money!

​​​​​​​With a PlusBus season ticket you don't have to drive in peak hour traffic, or hunt around for a parking space. Simply hop-on any bus, show your PlusBus season ticket to the driver and away you go!

PlusBus season tickets are available to 170 towns and cities across Britain. They are valid for set periods to match your train season ticket: 7-days; 1-month; 3-months and 1-year and give you unlimited bus travel on all participating bus operators’ services around your origin, or destination town.

What's more, with a PlusBus season ticket you can travel as much as you like during the evening and at weekends. Use PlusBus for your journeys to the shops, leisure attractions and to visit your friends!

Visit our own PlusBus pages or go direct to www.plusbus.info.

You may be able to buy your non-smartcard or barcode (physical) Season Ticket before the day it is due to start. However, to avoid misuse of these types of Season Tickets, they can only be purchased a short period of time beforehand.

The table below summarises when you can purchase or renew a physical Season Ticket or Travelcard:

'Smart' Season Tickets

You can buy a Season Ticket at any staffed National Rail ticket office, or via the internet from a Train Company or third party National Rail accredited retailers. If you are buying a Season Ticket for the first time, you may need to have a Photocard created.

• For Monthly or longer Season Tickets, you may need to complete an application form or have a 'Season Ticket record' created

• If necessary, you will need to provide a passport-type photograph for the accompanying Photocard

• If you already have a Photocard, you may be able to buy 7-Day Season Tickets at self-service ticket vending machines

• Photocards do not have an expiry date and can be reused when a Season Ticket expires

• To avoid the queues, it's best to avoid buying your ticket on weekday mornings See table above for when to buy or renew Season Tickets

For Flexi Season Tickets held on smartcard you will need a smartcard before you purchase. See the National Rail Smartcards page for details of how to register for a smartcard or see your retailers website. New smartcards may take up to 5 days to be sent via post.

You can pay for your Season Ticket in the following ways:

• Cash (National Rail ticket offices, and limited self-service ticket machines only)
• Credit or debit card
• Cheque* - Details of payment by cheque
• Rail Travel Vouchers** (part or full payment)
• Rail Warrant (issued by your employer) ***

Some train companies may also allow you to spread the cost of the Season Ticket by paying with Direct Debit

*Cheques are no longer widely accepted. Check with the retailer before purchase
**Physical Rail Travel Vouchers can be exchanged at any National Rail ticket office as full or part-payment towards a Season Ticket. Rail Travel Vouchers issued as credit into an online account can only be redeemed by an online purchase
***Only accepted at National Rail ticket offices and (in limited circumstances) onboard by some train train companies. 

Which Train Company or Route can I use?

Unless the Season Ticket says it can only be used on a specific Train Company, it is valid on all Train Company services on the route and within the Zones for which the ticket is issued.

Season ticket with 'Dual Route Availability'

If two railway lines run close or on geographically parallel routes it may possible to buy a specially priced Season Ticket with dual route availability - for example a Season Ticket from Farnborough to London can be requested to be available to use from Aldershot or a Season Ticket from Huntingdon to London can be available to use from Cambridge.

Children

• Children (aged 5-15 years inclusive) receive a 50% discount on Season Tickets and Travelcards, for both First Class and Standard travel.
• 16-17 Saver - If you are aged 16 or 17 years old, you can purchase a 16-17 Saver to get 50% discount on Adult rate Season Tickets
• 7-Day Season Tickets/Travelcards - If the child reaches their 16th birthday during the validity of the ticket, a 7-Day Season Ticket with the 50% discount will remain valid.
• Monthly or Longer Season Tickets or Travelcards - A child who becomes 16 years old on the first day of a 'period' Season Ticket/Travelcards pays the adult rate. If the birthday is within the ticket's validity period, but after the first day, the half rate ticket will continue to be valid, but needs to expire up to a maximum of four months after the 16th birthday.
• Annual Gold Cards - These tickets are not issued to children. Full details on Annual Gold Cards.

Railcards

Most Railcard discounts are not available on Season Tickets as these tickets are already heavily discounted. There are exceptions, such as the Jobcentre Plus Travel Discount Card. See 'Concessionary Travel on National Rail' page for details.

Annual Gold Cards

As well as being a Season Ticket for a full 12 months, Annual Gold Card gives you 12 months of discounted travel for yourself and other people travelling with you. Annual Gold Cards are automatically issued when you buy an Annual Season ticket for a journey within a part of the Annual Gold Card area, including on smartcard.

For further details, visit Annual Gold Cards page.

'Early Bird' Season Tickets

Southeastern offers discounted 7-Day or monthly Season Tickets for travel on earlier trains from Gravesend and Meopham to London. For more information see the Southeastern website.

How delay compensation is calculated is different if you have a Season Ticket. The table below will help with understanding how a Train Operating Company will work out how a Season Ticket is divided up, and what compensation you are entitled to.

* Compensation based on relevant Ticket valid for day of the week claimed

**Monthly Season Ticket are valid for one calendar month, but for compensation purposes it will be divided into 40 single journeys regardless of number of days it is valid for.,

Renewal Discount

Where available, a Train Company's "Passengers' Charter" gives performance targets and details of any additional discount available for Monthly or longer Season Ticket renewals in the event of below standard reliability or time keeping for the train service group. Some operators allow a discount when you renew your Season Ticket if there has been sustained disruption to your journey.

More details on these types of Season Ticket discounts are on our Compensation for Delays page 

Abandoned Journeys

If you choose not to travel with your Season Ticket because of delays or cancellations to a service on a day your Ticket is valid, the train company that caused the delay may be able to offer compensation based on the above. In the first instance, you should contact that train company, or check their Passengers' Charter. 

If you no longer need your Season Ticket, it can be returned to the retailer you bought it from to be refunded. This can be the ticket office you purchased it from, or another managed by the same retailer or operator. For Season Tickets purchased online or via telesales, the Season Ticket should be returned to that retailer. All Season Ticket must still be within their period of validity to be refunded (exceptions for sickness do not apply on evidence of non-use).

You should be aware that the Season Ticket will need to be surrendered, so a refund should only be requested once you have completely finished using it.

Any refund is calculated from the date after the Season Ticket was returned to the retailer, and will be the difference between the price you paid and the cost of a ticket or tickets for the period for which you have actually used the ticket up to and including the date a refund is requested. There may also be an administration charge of no more than £10.00.

Because of the discounts on longer term Season Tickets, refunds are not made 'pro rata' to the periods before/after surrender and annual Season Tickets may have no 'cash' value after 10 months and 12 days.

For Season Tickets held on a smartcard or mobile device, contact the original retailer for advice. 

Full information can be found on the Season Ticket Terms & Conditions page.

Full details of your Season Ticket can be found in our Season Ticket Terms & Conditions page.

There may be some special Conditions that apply to individual Train Companies or journeys. These will be explained to you when you buy your ticket.