I am a normal UK resident employee in London.
I have to pay about 50 pounds a week in train fares to get to and from
my work. (its a normal 9-5 office based job, i don't travel otherwise

Can I claim a tax deduction for my train fares and reduce my tax?

Dear phurge-ga,

Under the circumstances you have described, I am afraid not. The
relevant Act is The Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003.
Ordinary commuting or private travel is defined in Section 338.
Section 338(2) and (3) states that,

(2) ?Subsection (1) does not apply to the expenses of ordinary
commuting or travel between any two places that is for practical
purposes substantially ordinary commuting.?
(3) In this section "ordinary commuting" means travel between- 
    (a) the employee's home and a permanent workplace, or
    (b) a place that is not a workplace and a permanent workplace.

http://www.opsi.gov.uk/ACTS/acts2003/30001-ai.htm#338

These two HM Revenue and Customs pages give additional clarification
and circumstances where a claim may be made.

EIM32055 - Travel expenses: travel for necessary attendance:
definitions: ordinary commuting
?No deduction is due under Section 338 ITEPA 2003 for the cost of
ordinary commuting.?
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/eimanual/EIM32055.htm

EIM32300 - Travel expenses: travel for necessary attendance:
safeguards against abuse: journeys treated as ordinary commuting

?Sometimes an employee may travel to a temporary workplace without
that journey being significantly different from his or her ordinary
commuting journey. A journey that is for practical purposes
substantially the same as the employee's ordinary commuting journey is
treated as if it were also ordinary commuting. Therefore, no deduction
is allowed for the journey, see EIM32055.?
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/eimanual/EIM32300.htm

You have my sympathy. I spent 30 years paying for commuting. I would
have loved to claim it back from the tax man!

I hope this answers your question. If it does not, or the answer is
unclear, then please ask for clarification of this research before
rating the answer. I shall respond to the clarification request as
soon as I receive it.
Thank you
answerfinder


Search strategy
Searched for the word Commuting on the HM Revenue & Customs web site 
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/
http://search2.openobjects.com/kbroker/inldrev/inldrev/kbsearch?sr=0&nh=20&cs=iso-8859-1&sc=ir&ha=7&mt=0&qt=commuting