Why even pay £110 for a split ticket when you could pay just over £90 (or 60 for a railcard reduced ticket) for a Sunderland to London super off peak ticket which I’ve just done today? (In fact the LNER staff at Newcastle even told me to purchase this ticket, over their so-called flex tickets)
Good luck building a site that suggests this; LNER would get you shut down, I'm sure.
LNER issued a very strongly worded memo to ticket office staff instructing them not to circumvent the trial not to sell anything other than through fares. I see LNER staff are ignoring their employers instructions, which says a lot about how awful the 'fares reform' being trialled actually is.
It's also very telling that their staff are prepared to risk disciplinary action in order to help people get around the trial.
I wonder how widespread it is that LNER staff are instructing passengers to circumvent the trial? Does anyone know? Also does anyone know if LNER management take disciplinary action against staff who do this?
I wonder if
@David Horne will be prepared to stand up to the DfT to say the trial clearly isn't a success, that passengers don't want it, and that at least some of their staff would rather go against company instructions than knowingly charge customers high Anytime fares at traditionally super off peak times?
I really hope he does. But would he risk losing his job if he doesn't stick to the DfT's expectations?
But, back to the original point, all of this is good evidence to demonstrate how poor the proposed fare structure is for passengers.
It's already bad enough that return journeys were increased at a higher rate than inflation, and that Off Peak to/from London was replaced with Anytime, but the abolishment of Super Off Peak is a step that goes
far beyond anything remotely reasonable.
However, I don't agree that passengers should avoid buying online and should instead hope that the staff at their local ticket office can suggest alternative origin/destination combinations, contrary to the instructions of their employer, if that is what you are suggesting?
I mean every split ticket fare for next Friday is cheaper with TrainPal, as they don't charge a high commission on split ticket fares
View attachment 176921
That's not what I am seeing!
Image shows trains for Friday 28 March Newcastle to London:
1131 £83.90 both
1158 £88.40 both
1227 £81.40 Trainpal / £79.14 Railforums
Yes sometimes Trainpal beat us, but...
Yeah but then you're dealing with Trainpal...
...and your money goes to a Chinese based company that is difficult to get customer support from, as well as losing a seat selector.