https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-47258909
For example, an Anytime Return from Manchester to London is £350, while an Off Peak Return is £89.60. Trains departing at 1800, 1820, 1840 have plenty of spare seats, while the 1900 is full.
It doesn't have to be that way; LNER have a much more sensible pricing structure that avoids this situation.
Anyway, the plan to remedy this is for business people to pay much lower fares in future for travel at peak time and the cost of this will be paid for by leisure passengers who will, if the proposals come to fruition, have to pay a higher price.
The cost of travelling on peak time trains will reduce, but it will no longer be possible to purchase a flexible return fare for a journey such as Mancester to London for £89.60; the lowest flexible fares will cost significantly more under these proposals. The aim is to make business people pay less, while leisure passengers pay more.
Not only do they plan to increase the price of the fares that are currently regulated, they also plan to remove permitted routes to reduce flexibility, but we've had threads on that before.
Furthermore, though some of the more expensive fares paid for by business users will decrease, the lowest priced fares - which are used by leisure passengers - will increase, so that it is - in theory - no longer cheaper to "split". In reality this won't be fully achievable as you can never eliminate split ticketing (they tried in Scotland in 2013 and failed).
It looks like one way they want to achieve this will be to increase the price of day return fares. They will do this by abolishing these good value fares and force passengers to buy Singles. Single fares will be cheaper than at present but not to the extent that would be necessary to avoid huge rises for day trippers. Examples of fares that will go up massively include Sheffield to Derby; currently £12.30 for an off peak day return, and London St Pancras to Gatwick Airport; currently £9.80 for a return on a Saturday or Sunday. The single fares for such journeys are expected to be much higher than half these fares, so day trippers will face fare rises far greater than ever seen before.
The Rail Delivery Group are misusing the results of the recent fares consultation in order to justify their proposals.
I will stand firm and oppose their plans every step of the way. I will fight to retain good value fares.
They are seeking permission from DfT to ditch fares regulation on the former Saver fares; the aim will be to reduce the price of Anytime fares, and increase the price of Off Peak fares.[Rail Delivery Group suggest] removing the sudden change between peak and off-peak fares, to reduce overcrowding.
Transport Focus, the independent passenger watchdog which also worked on the consultation, said UK train operators currently offered an "outdated and outmoded fares and ticketing system".
Reform would mean updating regulations around peak and off-peak travel, Rail Delivery Group said, and ticket prices could be set more flexibly. This would reduce overcrowding, it said.
For example, an Anytime Return from Manchester to London is £350, while an Off Peak Return is £89.60. Trains departing at 1800, 1820, 1840 have plenty of spare seats, while the 1900 is full.
It doesn't have to be that way; LNER have a much more sensible pricing structure that avoids this situation.
Anyway, the plan to remedy this is for business people to pay much lower fares in future for travel at peak time and the cost of this will be paid for by leisure passengers who will, if the proposals come to fruition, have to pay a higher price.
The cost of travelling on peak time trains will reduce, but it will no longer be possible to purchase a flexible return fare for a journey such as Mancester to London for £89.60; the lowest flexible fares will cost significantly more under these proposals. The aim is to make business people pay less, while leisure passengers pay more.
Not only do they plan to increase the price of the fares that are currently regulated, they also plan to remove permitted routes to reduce flexibility, but we've had threads on that before.
Furthermore, though some of the more expensive fares paid for by business users will decrease, the lowest priced fares - which are used by leisure passengers - will increase, so that it is - in theory - no longer cheaper to "split". In reality this won't be fully achievable as you can never eliminate split ticketing (they tried in Scotland in 2013 and failed).
It looks like one way they want to achieve this will be to increase the price of day return fares. They will do this by abolishing these good value fares and force passengers to buy Singles. Single fares will be cheaper than at present but not to the extent that would be necessary to avoid huge rises for day trippers. Examples of fares that will go up massively include Sheffield to Derby; currently £12.30 for an off peak day return, and London St Pancras to Gatwick Airport; currently £9.80 for a return on a Saturday or Sunday. The single fares for such journeys are expected to be much higher than half these fares, so day trippers will face fare rises far greater than ever seen before.
The Rail Delivery Group are misusing the results of the recent fares consultation in order to justify their proposals.
I will stand firm and oppose their plans every step of the way. I will fight to retain good value fares.
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