You may remember the Delivering a Sustainable Railway White Paper states that ticket types are going to be changed. The rumour is that this is going to take place from September 2008 (which seems an odd date - will there then be additional rises in January 2009? could be an excuse to have 2 rises?!).
It looks like fares such as Business Savers are to be abolished, and Saver Singles (renamed Off Peak) are to be half the price of returns.
If you take York-London, the BVR is £112.50, half the SVR fare would be £37.55 and the SOS is £88.50, so the total under the new system would be £126.05, an increase of around 12%.
The distinction between CDR and SVR seems to be that the former will be prefixed with "day". So, in order to carry out their promise of making things simple, they will either have to enable the outward portions to allow break of journey (BOJ), or they will result in CDRs being more limited by not allowing BOJ. I know which I'd rather have!
How will York-Sheffield fares work out? Thre is no Standard Open Return, because the SVR is an open ticket. So, presumably the Saver will be renamed 'Anytime' and the CDR will be called Off Peak. Or will it? Well that's what should happen, but I do worry that some beancounter will decide that all SVRs should be re-branded "Off peak" without understanding the fact that SVRs are actually 'peak' tickets on many routes. It's not all good news if this happens, though. Railcard holders could suffer a huge increase in fares before 10am. At present, the SVR has a £8 min fare for Y-P holders, yet the SDR minimum is £16. So a York to Sheffield journey at peak time costs £11.15. If the Saver is renamed Anytime, then (assuming that, as Anytime is generally replacing SOR/SDR) that will result in YP holders having to pay £16.00 (only 90p discount), which is effectively a massive fare rise. What's the alternative? Well, the SVR could be re-branded as "Off Peak" but then people might get confused that such a ticket can be used at any time...
Any more conundrums out there?
(Note: all fares above are from NFM95)
It looks like fares such as Business Savers are to be abolished, and Saver Singles (renamed Off Peak) are to be half the price of returns.
If you take York-London, the BVR is £112.50, half the SVR fare would be £37.55 and the SOS is £88.50, so the total under the new system would be £126.05, an increase of around 12%.
The distinction between CDR and SVR seems to be that the former will be prefixed with "day". So, in order to carry out their promise of making things simple, they will either have to enable the outward portions to allow break of journey (BOJ), or they will result in CDRs being more limited by not allowing BOJ. I know which I'd rather have!
How will York-Sheffield fares work out? Thre is no Standard Open Return, because the SVR is an open ticket. So, presumably the Saver will be renamed 'Anytime' and the CDR will be called Off Peak. Or will it? Well that's what should happen, but I do worry that some beancounter will decide that all SVRs should be re-branded "Off peak" without understanding the fact that SVRs are actually 'peak' tickets on many routes. It's not all good news if this happens, though. Railcard holders could suffer a huge increase in fares before 10am. At present, the SVR has a £8 min fare for Y-P holders, yet the SDR minimum is £16. So a York to Sheffield journey at peak time costs £11.15. If the Saver is renamed Anytime, then (assuming that, as Anytime is generally replacing SOR/SDR) that will result in YP holders having to pay £16.00 (only 90p discount), which is effectively a massive fare rise. What's the alternative? Well, the SVR could be re-branded as "Off Peak" but then people might get confused that such a ticket can be used at any time...
Any more conundrums out there?
(Note: all fares above are from NFM95)