All Line Railrover not valid before 10.00 at certain stations

[Justin Smith]

I was idly speculating on if I'd ever get an All Line Railrover and was shocked to read this :

The All Line Rail Rover is NOT valid for boarding or alighting train services operated by Avanti West Coast, CrossCountry, East Midlands Railway, or LNER before 10:00 Mondays to Fridays at the following stations:

Birmingham New Street
Bedford
London Euston
London Kings Cross
London St Pancras International
Luton
Luton Airport Parkway
Milton Keynes Central
Stevenage
Watford Junction

How long has that been the case ?
Were there any such restrictions when it was BR, and if not how have the TOCs managed to introduce them since ?

 

[jfollows]

These restrictions have been in place for many years now, but not as long ago as when it was BR.
They were introduced once enough people noticed that an all-line rover was cheaper than, for example, a few days’ travelling Manchester to London and back. I used them for this purpose in the first decade of this century, for example.
There are ways to circumvent or minimise the effect of the restrictions but these aren’t generally publicised, because publicity is what caused them to be introduced in the first place.
Virgin and others lobbied for the change because they perceived lost revenue on their peak fares.

 

[Mike99]

To give you some information, in the search option there are many threads on this topic, the latest as recently as the 5th December 2023​

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All Line Rover Restrictions​

• Thread startermetrail
• Start date5 Dec 2023

 

[Haywain]

These restrictions have been in place for many years now, but not as long ago as when it was BR.

They were introduced around 2010, shortly after Lord Adonis, the Transport Secretary, had publicised what good value the ALR could be.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

How long has that been the case ?

Over a decade now (at least). No doubt changed at the behest of fares managers who were of the opinion that unrestricted use of ALRs might under-cut revenue on "peak hour" longer distance flows.

 

[swt_passenger]

The original 2010 discussion is here, if anyone’s looking for it:

All Line Rover [ALR] restrictions from 2 January 2011

Apparently, from January the following rules will be enforced for ALRs: All Line Rail Rover product changes from 2 January 2011 Please note that All Line Rail Rovers sold for travel on or after the 2 January 2011 will carry some morning time restrictions for travel on CrossCountry, East...

www.railforums.co.uk

 

[Hadders]

The time restrictions are relatively easy to circumnavigate, if needed by using alternative operators (eg GTR, LNR, Hull Trains, Lumo, Grand Central etc) or changing at places like Wolverhampton instead of New Street.

It was either these restrictions or a big increase in price or some other form of draconian restrictions.

 

[ainsworth74]

As for the "how" it is, to my understanding, that rovers are not a regulated product. They exist in basically at the pleasure of the industry therefore it can do basically as it likes with rovers and rangers in terms of restrictions, price or even existence...

 

[Shaw S Hunter]

They were introduced around 2010, shortly after Lord Adonis, the Transport Secretary, had publicised what good value the ALR could be.

It bothered me at the time that it was also just after a whole series of discussions here about how to extract maximum value from the First Class ALR by using the am peak services of the very operators to which the restrictions were subsequently applied. This was about obtaining free meal service available in First Class. It may well have been just a coincidence but equally some Fares Managers have been known to lurk here...

 

[Djgr]

They were introduced around 2010, shortly after Lord Adonis, the Transport Secretary, had publicised what good value the ALR could be.

Privatised rail industry bosses trying to show who is in control

 

[Haywain]

Privatised rail industry bosses trying to show who is in control protect their revenue

Corrected for you.