South Western Railway Touch Smartcard

Flexi Season ticket

Commute, your way

Commute in your own unique way

Do you split your time between working from home and commuting? Or do you work part time and need a flexible season ticket to choose the time and days you travel?

If you’re making the same journey at least two days per week but not enough to get a season ticket, a Flexi Season ticket may be a good-value alternative for many commuters compared to buying Anytime Day Return tickets.

What is a Flexi Season ticket?

The new Flexi Season ticket offers 8 days of travel in 28 days – any time between two stations. It is available for adults and Standard Class travel only and can be purchased up to 14 days in advance. You will have 28 days from the start date selected to use up all 8 day passes. After 28 days, any unused day passes will expire.

The Flexi Season ticket is available across most routes in Britain and is not limited to journeys within the SWR network. Flexi Season tickets aren’t available for journeys wholly within the London fare zones. London Travelcards aren’t available with Flexi Season tickets, so you’ll need to use an Oyster card or contactless when using the TfL network.

The Flexi Season ticket is only available on smart tickets, so order a SWR smartcard today if you don’t have one already. Plus, you can sign up to get Automated Delay Repay notifications if you’ve been delayed by 15 minutes or more.



How much is a Flexi Season ticket?

A Flexi Season ticket is a form of season ticket and comparing a Flexi Season ticket with the equivalent monthly season ticket, the minimum discount will be 20%.

Use the season ticket calculator to compare Flexi Season, day return and season ticket prices, then buy your ticket online, on our app or at selected SWR stations. If you have a 16-17 Saver or a Jobcentre Plus Travel Discount Card, you can also get an extra 50% off your Flexi season ticket saving you even more.

How do I buy a Flexi Season ticket?

Before you buy a Flexi Season ticket, you’ll need a free SWR smartcard. You can order a smartcard online or you can get a smartcard immediately from a growing number of our stations. Click here for further details.

Once you have a SWR smartcard you can buy your Flexi Season ticket online, on our app or at select SWR stations.

Buy online

Your Flexi Season ticket will be ready to collect two hours after you buy it from your chosen station’s smartcard reader. This will also activate a day pass, so we suggest adding your Flexi Season ticket when you want to make your first journey.

Buy in app

  • Open the app, select Flexi Season from options
  • Enter your journey details
  • Buy your tickets

If you buy a Flexi Season ticket through the SWR mobile app, it can be added straight onto your smartcard from all Android operating systems with NFC and iPhones with iOS 13 or later.

Alternatively, you can choose to collect your ticket two hours after you buy it from your chosen station’s smartcard reader. This will also activate a day pass, so we suggest adding your Flexi Season ticket when you want to make your first journey.

Get your flexible train tickets at SWR stations

You can buy a Flexi Season ticket for your smartcard from a growing number of our ticket offices. You can find the list of stations here.

How do I use a Flexi Season ticket?

On the day you want to travel, just touch in on the origin station’s yellow smartcard reader found on the ticket gate or platform validator to start your journey and activate a day pass. You’ll now have unlimited travel between your origin and destination stations and any in-between for the day, right up to 04:29 the next day.

You must touch in on a yellow smartcard reader before you start a journey, otherwise you may be considered to be travelling without a valid day pass. If the station doesn’t have a yellow smartcard reader to start a day pass, download the National Rail Smartcard Manager app in the Apple App Store or Google Play Store and follow the instructions or a member of staff on-board may be able to help you.

Don’t forget you must touch in and touch out on yellow smartcard readers for every journey you make and keep your smartcard separate to avoid card clash.

Things you need to know about using a Flexi Season ticket

Currently, we recommend you having a smartcard just for a Flexi Season ticket and a separate smartcard for using Tap2Go for pay as you go travel and adding other types of train tickets. If you have Tap2Go or a ticket with a similar journey on the same smartcard as your Flexi Season ticket, we can’t guarantee our system will select the right ticket or correctly charge you for your journey. You can order additional smartcards to be stored within your online SWR account free of charge.

If you already have a Flexi Season ticket on your smartcard with days of travel remaining, you must avoid having a second Flexi Season ticket with overlapping validity. You should either use all your day passes before buying a new Flexi Season ticket or ensure the start date of the new Flexi Season ticket is after the last day of planned travel on your current Flexi Season ticket to avoid the new ticket being used before all 8 days on the active ticket have been used.

Other flexible train ticket options

If a Flexi Season ticket isn’t right for you but still don’t want to be restricted by time, we have a range of flexible train tickets for you to choose from. Find the right one below for your journey, then just book online or on our app.

Travelling by train

Travelling in London

Season ticket terms and conditions

Business life

Get useful tips for working and commuting in our travel blog, Where Next

Find out more

SWR Rewards

Buying a ticket with us just got more rewarding!

Find out more

You might also like

Flexi Season FAQs

Your questions about the Flexi Season ticket answered

Read our FAQs

Weekly season tickets

Weekly tickets are likely to save you money compared to buying daily Anytime Day Returns

Discover weekly season tickets

Monthly season tickets

Buy a monthly season ticket with auto-renewal to save money and time

Discover monthly season tickets