Where does my cash go?

[rosscbrown]

Hello all,

Now that we have various companies (and a Government) running the train services for profit, how does the profit from my ticket get divided up?

I travel between Edinburgh and Lockerbie quite a bit. Say I buy a return ticket from a Virgin FastTicket machine and travel Edinburgh to Glasgow Queen Street (First ScotRail) > Glasgow Central to Lockerbie (Virgin) out and then Lockerbie to Edinburgh (First TransPennine Express) return, who gets what in the way of revenue?

Virgin, because I used their ticket machine?

First TransPennine Express because that's the direct route?

All of the above, split equally because sharing is caring?

All of the above, proportionately for the distance traveled? If so, how do you work it out?

Or does it all go into a big pot and at the end of the year it is divided out between all the TOCs based on the percentage of passengers that TOC moved from one place to another?

 

[krus_aragon]

As I understand it, the price of each ticket is split up among the train operators according to the Rail Settlement Plan, according to:

Who sold the ticket
Who sets the price of the ticket
Which TOCs operate what fraction of the daily train services on the route
Which operators operate first class services (if its a first class ticket)

and probably some other factors too.

 

[142094]

Its a system called ORCATS, which I don't fully understand but I think it works along the lines of the number of seats provided by a TOC for a particular journey,and they would get a relevant proportion of the money from that ticket. A TOC would only get the full amount if it was an advance ticket, or if they provided the only service on that line (e.g if I go from Newcastle to Chathill all my money would go to Northern as they are the only ones who provide services for Chathill station).

There was some fuss when GC started running, as it was said they only stopped at York due to the large amount of people travelling down to London on GNER/NXEC/EC, so in theory a GC train could run empty from York to London but GC would still get money under ORCATS.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

There was some fuss when GC started running, as it was said they only stopped at York due to the large amount of people travelling down to London on GNER/NXEC/EC, so in theory a GC train could run empty from York to London but GC would still get money under ORCATS.

:roll: According to this article, GC were receiving a full income share last year through ORCATS despite all but one of their trains not having run, supposedly on the basis that ORCATS cannot cope with cancellations.

http://www.journallive.co.uk/north-...re-despite-rail-line-problems-61634-20924121/

The following article is also of interest, and possibly explains why certain train operators are now so keen to sell "own TOC only" tickets.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2006/may/27/consumernews.travelnews

 

[Muttley]

Just to add...if you`d bought your ticket from a conductor instead of the machine, they`d be intitled to a commision. So the conductor would get 4% but the company may not get anywhere near the 96% remaining.

 

[Pumbaa]

It's also influenced by the proportion of the services being run by which operator. Eg as TPE run the bulk of Lockerbie - Edin services, they'd get a greater share of income than Virgin.

 

[ChrisTheRef]

Do ticket clerks in stations get commission?

Might pick who serves me carefully when I buy 3 ALRs

 

[SWT Driver]

Then there's LENNON. (Not John or Julian)

 

[Greenback]

Do ticket clerks in stations get commission?

Might pick who serves me carefully when I buy 3 ALRs

No,clerks don't get commission. Perhaps if they did there might be fewer that say they can't issue that ticket because it's outside the boundary, as happened whenI wanted a Valleys Day Ranger at Swansea!