Return tickets cheaper than singles

[AndrewR232]

I'd be interested to get some insight into this.

I've noticed that for one journey, Cumbernauld [CUB] to Edinburgh [EDB], the cheapest available (anytime day) single fare is £13.80, yet the cheapest available (off-peak day) return fare is only £12.60.

Can anyone suggest a reason for this, and are there other known examples?

 

[button_boxer]

The only examples I've made use of are the cheap evening return tickets within Greater Manchester, which are half the price of the CDR and so substantially less than the single.

 

[calc7]

Some Super Off-Peak tickets on certain flows in the South East only come in Returns and are cheaper than the Off-Peak Day Single.

 

[bb21]

There was an exercise a few years back during which an alternative single fare was introduced for flows where the cheapest return cost less than the cheapest single. This partly explains why some single fares are only 10p cheaper than the equivalent return (although this is not the only reason).

The Anytime Day fare is the full fare, whereas the Off-Peak Day was originally a discounted fare. Prior to this exercise it was not unusual to encounter situations like this (ie. a discounted return being cheaper than a full fare single and a discounted single not always available), however they are relatively rare nowadays (except for those very cheap special offer fares such as the cheap evening returns in certain PTE areas).

It may simply be the case that this flow was missed during that exercise (amongst other possibilities).