All Line Rover
Established Member
- Joined
- 17 Feb 2011
- Messages
- 5,222
Yorkie's suspicions about increasing the non-London fares were well founded. According to this article by the Independent, part of First's commitment to cut Anytime fares by an average of 15% includes reducing the Birmingham to Edinburgh SOS from £116 to £99.
That may seem good at first, but not when you take into account the fact that that fare is priced by CrossCountry, and Virgin Trains currently have a VT Only Off-Peak Return at £117.40 that is valid on ANY TRAIN.
Evidently, First will scrap the VT/First Only fare, leaving the only remaining Off-Peak return with a 2V restriction. I'm not sure how CrossCountry will react to that, nor how this decision will benefit First with regard to ORCATS. (After all, it the West Coast franchise benefits so much from the Any Permitted Anytime fare, why did Virgin bother introducing a VT Only Off-Peak fare at half the price?)
That may seem good at first, but not when you take into account the fact that that fare is priced by CrossCountry, and Virgin Trains currently have a VT Only Off-Peak Return at £117.40 that is valid on ANY TRAIN.
Evidently, First will scrap the VT/First Only fare, leaving the only remaining Off-Peak return with a 2V restriction. I'm not sure how CrossCountry will react to that, nor how this decision will benefit First with regard to ORCATS. (After all, it the West Coast franchise benefits so much from the Any Permitted Anytime fare, why did Virgin bother introducing a VT Only Off-Peak fare at half the price?)