If you frequently commute between two train stations, it's worthwhile investing in a commuter pass, available from certain stations and ticket machines. You specify a starting and ending station, and travel between them is covered by your card/ticket. This means you can just use your pass every day without having to buy tickets every time you travel.
For example, when I was living in Yokohama, if I had been paying for daily tickets 5 days a week to and from work, I would have paid over 8400 yen per 4 weeks. But I paid about 6300 yen for a monthly commuter pass. Not only is it a decent saving, bear in mind you can travel between any of the stations on your commute at any time, including weekends, for free.
Often your company will pay for this pass.
In the Tokyo/Yokohama area, you can use a Suica or similar card as both your commuter pass, and a general 'credit' ticket for any train. So let's say you have a commuter pass set up between Yokohama and Tokyo stations. And you've put a random 5000 yen on the card. If you travel from Yokohama to Kawasaki (a station between Yokohama and Tokyo), it's free. But if you travel from Yokohama to Akihabara (a station further than Tokyo), your card will automatically have the extra money deducted.
One thing I was wondering was how much gets deducted. When I had a Suica, I never remembered to check; I couldn't remember how much I had on my card when I went in or out of the station. Now I live in Nagoya so I decided to try.
In Nagoya, if you use the subway, you cannot use Suica. You have to get a commuter pass which is like a ticket, a little card. You can't add extra credit to this ticket, nor can you use it when departing from a station not on your commute. However, if you leave from a station on your commute, and travel to a station which is not, at the other end you can put your card in the 'fare adjustment machine' and buy a ticket to cover the balance.
What I wanted to check was:
Say the fare from my station to Sakae (on my commute) is 200 yen.
The fare from my station to Kamimaezu (not on my commute) is 230 yen.
And the fare from Sakae to Kamimaezu is 200 yen.
If I travelled from my station to Kamimaezu, would I be charged 30 - the total difference - or 200 yen - the fare from Sakae to Kamimaezu? Nobody could tell me.
I tried it, and needless to say, I was indeed charged the full 200 yen.
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We found the Suica card to be great when we visited Tokyo last August... however, the reality is after even only 5 days, we didn't care how much we were using it, or how much it was costing. That's the double-edged nature of these cards. Very convenient, but perhaps too convenient.
ReplyDeleteDidn't know they had commuter discounts however. Hope to be able to make use of it one day.