Off-peak peak journeys on TPE
When is peak time not peak time? When you buy a ticket before midnight! A few years ago Trans Pennine Express (TPE) introduced restrictions on many of its Off Peak (then known as Saver) fares, such as York to Manchester. These tickets are restricted in the morning for outward travel only, but this restriction includes services departing in the early hours which are very lightly loaded. The TOCs excuses for ever increasingly draconian peak restrictions are that they are managing demand when in reality they are running a business and are actually maximising revenue (at our expense), and this is an example of that.
There is, however, a way to avoid this scam. Simply buy your ticket before midnight! Yes, it really is that simple! The ticketing day lasts until 02:30.
For example, an Off Peak ticket from York to Manchester bought on the 1st of June is valid for the 01:40 service on 2nd June. But buy your ticket after midnight and you will be charged full Anytime fare for travel on the same, lightly loaded train!
PAYG: The end of break of journey?
Enjoy the ability to break your journey while you can! PAYG (Pay as you go) with Oyster is introduced throughout the London area shortly, and the system treats journeys as ending when you exit the system (except at certain interchange points for a specified length of time, in case you are making an interchange) so if you break your journey multiple times you are treated as making separate journeys.
Once operational throughout London, I can see this system being extended slowly beyond the London boundary, and also introduced in other centres. The solution, for now, is to buy a paper ticket, but if as they did on London Underground paper tickets increase in price massively, then that would cause increased costs for people wishing to break their journey.
It may take a long time but it could eventually be launched across the UK, although such a system would be incredibly complex and it is difficult to think what the maximum cash fare would be, and how it would cope with all the routeing possibilities.
A passenger recently had a frustrating experience at Paddington, where he thought he was touching out at the barrier on the footbridge after using the Hammersmith & City Line from King's Cross. He later discovered he was meant to touch out on the platform, and by touching the reader on the footbridge it classified his original journey as 'unresolved' therefore charged him a hefty penalty. To make matters worse, it then thought he made an unresolved journey on FGW and charged him a penalty for that too. What an abysmal system! Fortunately he got a full refund, but you have to be on the ball when using PAYG or you may end up utterly 'chinged'!
I can't begin to imagine the mayhem that will be let loose if PAYG were to be installed throughout the entire National Rail system, yet the DfT persist with their plans to expand it. What planet are they on?
How to avoid NXECs seat reservation tax!
As Im sure youre aware by now, National Express East Coast (NXEC) have introduced a charge of ₤2.50 for the privilege of reserving a seat on one of their trains, chargeable to holders of walk-on fares.
Atos Origin, who provide the booking engine used by NXEC, Southern and London Midland, have implemented NXECs charge for their trains. However, Thetrainline which runs all other TOC websites have not!
The charge applies to walk-on tickets, so you can avoid this charge by booking walk-on fares for use on NXEC on another operators site; such fares will not cost any extra from any other operator and your reservations will be completely free. I recommend using the Grand Central website, for no particular reason, other than the irony of it.
Note that for Advance fares it is cheaper to use NXECs own site, as they still give 10% off and do not charge for reservations on Advance fares.
The decline of Route Direct fares
Tickets routed Direct are slowly disappearing with each fares change, with a variety of alternatives used as appropriate, either routing via a particular point along the direct route, or routing you as not going via a particular point on an indirect route.
It appears to be an ATOC policy as we have seen examples on a variety of TOCs including TPE (e.g. Middlesbrough-York), Northern (Hull-York) and EMT (Grimsby-Newark).
Route Direct has never been clearly defined. Perhaps ATOC have no wish to define it, hence its removal? I can only assume that both direct trains, and also the shortest route, would be considered Direct. In the examples section of the routeing guide we are told that the shortest routes include routes up to 3 miles longer than the absolute shortest, but you have to do a lot of digging to find that, and it is not clear if this applies to Route Direct or not.
Perhaps the most interesting change is Hull to York, where Route Direct has become Route Not Doncaster. Previously one would reasonably assume that the ticket was not valid via Leeds, however now it clearly is valid that way. This appears to be a rare example where a change to ticket conditions actually benefits passengers!
For more advice on tickets, routeing and any other related subjects, please join us at Railforums.co.uk. The fares section there is the best place to get advice on the web.
The July article will be published in the July edition of Railtalk magazine (issue 34) - out soon at Railtalkmagazine.co.uk
When is peak time not peak time? When you buy a ticket before midnight! A few years ago Trans Pennine Express (TPE) introduced restrictions on many of its Off Peak (then known as Saver) fares, such as York to Manchester. These tickets are restricted in the morning for outward travel only, but this restriction includes services departing in the early hours which are very lightly loaded. The TOCs excuses for ever increasingly draconian peak restrictions are that they are managing demand when in reality they are running a business and are actually maximising revenue (at our expense), and this is an example of that.
There is, however, a way to avoid this scam. Simply buy your ticket before midnight! Yes, it really is that simple! The ticketing day lasts until 02:30.
For example, an Off Peak ticket from York to Manchester bought on the 1st of June is valid for the 01:40 service on 2nd June. But buy your ticket after midnight and you will be charged full Anytime fare for travel on the same, lightly loaded train!
PAYG: The end of break of journey?
Enjoy the ability to break your journey while you can! PAYG (Pay as you go) with Oyster is introduced throughout the London area shortly, and the system treats journeys as ending when you exit the system (except at certain interchange points for a specified length of time, in case you are making an interchange) so if you break your journey multiple times you are treated as making separate journeys.
Once operational throughout London, I can see this system being extended slowly beyond the London boundary, and also introduced in other centres. The solution, for now, is to buy a paper ticket, but if as they did on London Underground paper tickets increase in price massively, then that would cause increased costs for people wishing to break their journey.
It may take a long time but it could eventually be launched across the UK, although such a system would be incredibly complex and it is difficult to think what the maximum cash fare would be, and how it would cope with all the routeing possibilities.
A passenger recently had a frustrating experience at Paddington, where he thought he was touching out at the barrier on the footbridge after using the Hammersmith & City Line from King's Cross. He later discovered he was meant to touch out on the platform, and by touching the reader on the footbridge it classified his original journey as 'unresolved' therefore charged him a hefty penalty. To make matters worse, it then thought he made an unresolved journey on FGW and charged him a penalty for that too. What an abysmal system! Fortunately he got a full refund, but you have to be on the ball when using PAYG or you may end up utterly 'chinged'!
I can't begin to imagine the mayhem that will be let loose if PAYG were to be installed throughout the entire National Rail system, yet the DfT persist with their plans to expand it. What planet are they on?
How to avoid NXECs seat reservation tax!
As Im sure youre aware by now, National Express East Coast (NXEC) have introduced a charge of ₤2.50 for the privilege of reserving a seat on one of their trains, chargeable to holders of walk-on fares.
Atos Origin, who provide the booking engine used by NXEC, Southern and London Midland, have implemented NXECs charge for their trains. However, Thetrainline which runs all other TOC websites have not!
The charge applies to walk-on tickets, so you can avoid this charge by booking walk-on fares for use on NXEC on another operators site; such fares will not cost any extra from any other operator and your reservations will be completely free. I recommend using the Grand Central website, for no particular reason, other than the irony of it.
Note that for Advance fares it is cheaper to use NXECs own site, as they still give 10% off and do not charge for reservations on Advance fares.
The decline of Route Direct fares
Tickets routed Direct are slowly disappearing with each fares change, with a variety of alternatives used as appropriate, either routing via a particular point along the direct route, or routing you as not going via a particular point on an indirect route.
It appears to be an ATOC policy as we have seen examples on a variety of TOCs including TPE (e.g. Middlesbrough-York), Northern (Hull-York) and EMT (Grimsby-Newark).
Route Direct has never been clearly defined. Perhaps ATOC have no wish to define it, hence its removal? I can only assume that both direct trains, and also the shortest route, would be considered Direct. In the examples section of the routeing guide we are told that the shortest routes include routes up to 3 miles longer than the absolute shortest, but you have to do a lot of digging to find that, and it is not clear if this applies to Route Direct or not.
Perhaps the most interesting change is Hull to York, where Route Direct has become Route Not Doncaster. Previously one would reasonably assume that the ticket was not valid via Leeds, however now it clearly is valid that way. This appears to be a rare example where a change to ticket conditions actually benefits passengers!
For more advice on tickets, routeing and any other related subjects, please join us at Railforums.co.uk. The fares section there is the best place to get advice on the web.
The July article will be published in the July edition of Railtalk magazine (issue 34) - out soon at Railtalkmagazine.co.uk