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9.5% increase on an annual Season Ticket

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NatB

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I travel with SWR from Salisbury to London and was shocked to see my season ticket cost has increased by 9.5%, is this right or because they are all wearing masks have they taken to highway robbery?
 
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py_megapixel

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It's more than the average rise, but I doubt you're the only one experiencing increases of that sort of level.

It's technically correct, in that this is how much SWR have decided to charge for it, but whether you view it as morally right is entirely subjective.
 

wibble

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I travel with SWR from Salisbury to London and was shocked to see my season ticket cost has increased by 9.5%, is this right or because they are all wearing masks have they taken to highway robbery?

Are you sure it's gone up that much?
 

NatB

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I am, last year it was £5460.60 this year I am being quoted £5896, an additional £36/month, as you probably know SWR do not run the greatest service so I think it is a bit of a cheek to say the least
 

jfollows

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I am, last year it was £5460.60 this year I am being quoted £5896, an additional £36/month, as you probably know SWR do not run the greatest service so I think it is a bit of a cheek to say the least
+7.97%

To all intents and purposes an increase of 8%
 

swt_passenger

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£22.69 a day equivalent compared to the walk up £89.80 anytime return...
So maybe they realised it was too low a price to allow for part time seasons…
 

iharding

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There must be some good reductions somewhere to make the average regulated fare increase 2.6%. Not Farnborough-Waterloo for sure, which will be my commute once the office opens again. That's gone up by 5.9%!
 

island

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I am, last year it was £5460.60 this year I am being quoted £5896, an additional £36/month, as you probably know SWR do not run the greatest service so I think it is a bit of a cheek to say the least
Annual season ticket fares are only ever in multiples of four whole pounds, so that made me check and the actual fare until 28•FBY•21 was £5,748. So the fare has in fact gone up 2.57%.

£5,460.60 is exactly 95% of £5,748, so I suspect you got a passenger charter discount on renewal due to either excessive delays or cancellations on the line, or some other class of discount for some reason. SWR doesn’t do these discounts any more – instead you may claim for delays of 15 minutes and upwards trip by trip.

There must be some good reductions somewhere to make the average regulated fare increase 2.6%. Not Farnborough-Waterloo for sure, which will be my commute once the office opens again. That's gone up by 5.9%!
Farnborough Stns to London Terminals has gone from £4,732 to £4,856, an increase of 2.62%.

Edit: £4,128 to £4,236 for the more route Not Via Reading, also 2.62%.
 
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iharding

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Annual season ticket fares are only ever in multiples of four whole pounds, so that made me check and the actual fare until 28•FBY•21 was £5,748. So the fare has in fact gone up 2.57%.

£5,460.60 is exactly 95% of £5,748, so I suspect you got a passenger charter discount on renewal due to either excessive delays or cancellations on the line, or some other class of discount for some reason. SWR doesn’t do these discounts any more – instead you may claim for delays of 15 minutes and upwards trip by trip.


Farnborough Stns to London Terminals has gone from £4,732 to £4,856, an increase of 2.62%.

Edit: £4,128 to £4,236 for the more route Not Via Reading, also 2.62%.
I've not yet bought a season from Farnborough, having moved house three days after the first lockdown began, but did previously look up the price which I thought was almost exactly #4000. Maybe that was the price from before the January 2020 and I'm unfairly accusing SWR of two year's increases in one! Nearly everything was ready for the move to take place before then, but as often happens the last details dragged on and on.
 

island

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I've not yet bought a season from Farnborough, having moved house three days after the first lockdown began, but did previously look up the price which I thought was almost exactly #4000. Maybe that was the price from before the January 2020 and I'm unfairly accusing SWR of two year's increases in one! Nearly everything was ready for the move to take place before then, but as often happens the last details dragged on and on.
Yes, the 2019 price for Not Via Reading was £4,016; it may be that price which you are recalling.
 

Watershed

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Yes, the 2019 price for Not Via Reading was £4,016; it may be that price which you are recalling.
Incidentally, Farnborough-London surely has the most number of different geogaphic routes of any flow?

In descending price order (for the season tickets):
AAA Frimley
Any Permitted
AAA Bentley
AAA Farnham
AAA Ash Vale
AAA Camberley
AAA Aldershot
AAA Sunningdale
Not via Reading

Several of the AAAs are permitted routes on the Any Permitted/not via Reading anyway!
 

infobleep

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Incidentally, Farnborough-London surely has the most number of different geogaphic routes of any flow?

In descending price order (for the season tickets):
AAA Frimley
Any Permitted
AAA Bentley
AAA Farnham
AAA Ash Vale
AAA Camberley
AAA Aldershot
AAA Sunningdale
Not via Reading

Several of the AAAs are permitted routes on the Any Permitted/not via Reading anyway!

Isnt there also an "AAA FRLY not RDG" ?
Fascinating. Probably deserves a thread of it's own.
 

Hadders

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I am, last year it was £5460.60 this year I am being quoted £5896, an additional £36/month, as you probably know SWR do not run the greatest service so I think it is a bit of a cheek to say the least

£5,896 is the correct price for this year but exactly when did you purchase your last season ticket.

The price last year was £5,748. I haven't got the fares for 2019 to hand but I suspect this was £5,460 and that you actually purchased last year's season ticket at the end of December 2019 to beat the price rise.

So the increase you're quoting is across two years...

EDIT - I see @island has given a more plausible explanation upthread.
 

david1212

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£22.69 a day equivalent compared to the walk up £89.80 anytime return...
So maybe they realised it was too low a price to allow for part time seasons…

9.5% .... ought to be around 225% to around £13500 (£89.8 x 200 days x 0.75 (25% discount))
Far too many long distance season tickets are ridiculously cheap. Name another business that gives discounts of way over 60% when demand for their product or service is at the peak ?
 

mikeg

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Well plenty of industries give loyalty incentives. Also the SOR fares are ridiculously overpriced in the first place. Your plan would lead the railway to ruin.
Incidentally our seasons are, all things considered rather expensive compared to those found elsewhere in Europe.
 

Haywain

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Incidentally our seasons are, all things considered rather expensive compared to those found elsewhere in Europe.
It’s a popular argument that rail tickets in general are expensive here compared to elsewhere in Europe, but this is due to governmental policy around subsidy and taxation. I doubt there is any appetite to change this.
 

Wallsendmag

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Well plenty of industries give loyalty incentives. Also the SOR fares are ridiculously overpriced in the first place. Your plan would lead the railway to ruin.
Incidentally our seasons are, all things considered rather expensive compared to those found elsewhere in Europe.
Isn't that the case for a whole range of items though, bread is cheap in France, sausages in Germany, Pizza in Italy and the Strudel costs peanuts in Austria
 

Watershed

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Isn't that the case for a whole range of items though, bread is cheap in France, sausages in Germany, Pizza in Italy and the Strudel costs peanuts in Austria
Hardly comparable - food is affordable in all European countries.

Whereas most of the above countries have better public transport than the UK and yet the cost to the end user is, on average, much less than it is here.

Public transport is simply treated far more towards the 'commodity' end of the scale here and it shows.
 

Haywain

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Whereas most of the above countries have better public transport than the UK and yet the cost to the end user is, on average, much less than it is here.
Only the direct cost. Taxation tends to be higher to cover the difference. In this country the preference seems to be for higher disposable income and poorer public services.
 

Watershed

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Only the direct cost. Taxation tends to be higher to cover the difference. In this country the preference seems to be for higher disposable income and poorer public services.
Yes but the direct cost is what influences whether people take the train or drive. If we want to give the train a fighting chance of mitigating the car led recovery, fares will have to drop.

That means no longer thinking that £23 a day for a season ticket is amazing value for money (the SDR is no point of comparison - 60p a mile is really quite expensive).

And no more pretending that a 10% off carnet (Flexi Season) offers a 'generous' discount for part time commuters. It's an embarassment and a waste of space.

Unfortunately as you say, this is a uniquely British outlook which I suspect won't change anytime soon.
 
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