I don't think there is any justification for any increase at all this year, frankly.
The only upside is that for more than half of journeys I've made this year I've ended up with a full or partial refund, because delays are now so frequent. It feels like we are back to just post Hatfield levels of reliability and punctuality again and that isn't good.
Passengers numbers are now starting to drop on my routes (I think SWR being a particular case). I think there comes a point (and quite possibly, we've reached it now) where you can't keep increasing fares above inflation year-on-year, promising improvements that aren't delivered or aren't fully delivered and expect people to keep on paying it. Especially when (as has been the case on my local TOC), the quality of service has significantly declined.
Sorry that was a bit of a rant and I realise there are multiple factors at work here, many of them outside of the TOCs control.. I'm not trying to point the blame. However the TOCs is the name the public see and the company they pay the fares too and I don't think most of the public are interested in getting in a discussion over whether the blame for service failures lies with the TOCs, the DFT, Network Rail, the leasing companies or whoever else.
- Timetables that seemingly don't work (Northern, Thameslink, Great Northern, Southern) or have never been fully delivered, leading to numerous cancellations and overcrowding. Therefore, a very unreliable service.
- Some TOCs that seem unable to run a reliable weekend service (GWR, in particular).
- Unable to book Advance tickets more than about 6 weeks in advance now on most TOCs (with no sign of this changing any time soon), often leading to higher fares (and this can have knock on effects for booking hotels and so on too).
- Even when you can book Advance tickets in my experience the times have frequently changed by the time you come to travel.
- "Capacity improvements", which I think most passengers would assume means longer trains, or more frequent trains (or both) that actually translates to removing seats (which I don't think most passengers would consider an improvement).
- Yet more fare complexity which people struggle to understand (e.g. now Off Peak, Super Off Peak and Anytime)
- Uncomfortable and very narrow "ironing board" seats on most new trains .
- There seem to be more strikes disrupting services too (SWR, Northern).
- Removal of buffet on long distance services, in favour of trolleys or sometimes, nothing at all (e.g. GWR).
- Staff that don't know the restrictions on tickets and insist tickets are not valid when they are (VTWC staff at Euston seem worst for this).
- Air conditioning that never seems to work (a particular problem over this warm summer)
- Websites with useful functionality being removed (VTEC/LNER in particular)
- Closing ticket offices
- And constantly having to listen to "See it, Say It, Sorted" when on a train or at a station.
The only upside is that for more than half of journeys I've made this year I've ended up with a full or partial refund, because delays are now so frequent. It feels like we are back to just post Hatfield levels of reliability and punctuality again and that isn't good.
Passengers numbers are now starting to drop on my routes (I think SWR being a particular case). I think there comes a point (and quite possibly, we've reached it now) where you can't keep increasing fares above inflation year-on-year, promising improvements that aren't delivered or aren't fully delivered and expect people to keep on paying it. Especially when (as has been the case on my local TOC), the quality of service has significantly declined.
Sorry that was a bit of a rant and I realise there are multiple factors at work here, many of them outside of the TOCs control.. I'm not trying to point the blame. However the TOCs is the name the public see and the company they pay the fares too and I don't think most of the public are interested in getting in a discussion over whether the blame for service failures lies with the TOCs, the DFT, Network Rail, the leasing companies or whoever else.