Who gets season ticket money?

[jbb]

If I buy a yearly season ticket rugby - london, is there any difference who gets what money from it depending on where I buy it? I presume the station or website I buy it from gets some money for selling it, but is it a small fixed amount or a reasonable percentage of a large amount for a yearly ticket? If I for example was to buy it from london midland would they get more money than if I was to buy it from VT rugby station s there might be some assumption I'd be using their trains?

I have no intention of doing that, I was just curious at this time.

 

[swt_passenger]

A set percentage amount goes to the seller, I believe (unless changed recently) it's generally 9%. The remaining 91% is then divided between the TOCs whose trains you are assumed to use by the ORCATS process, in the same way as any non-season ticket.

There's no automatic assumption that the place you buy it will decide whose trains you'd use. If you bought a 'LM only' season at Rugby, it would basically mean that 9% would go to Virgin as the sellers, and 91% to LM.

If you buy a route 'any permitted' season at Rugby, Virgin would get the 9% as before, and although LM will get a certain fraction of the remaining 91%, West Coast will get the most, as determined by ORCATS.

(ORCATS is the computerised system that allocates the proportions of a ticket sale to the various TOCs whose trains you can use where you have a choice of operator.)

 

[John @ home]

A set percentage amount goes to the seller, I believe ... it's generally 9%.

It's lower for season tickets. 2% has been mentioned on this forum as a typical figure for annual season tickets.

 

[swt_passenger]

It's lower for season tickets. 2% has been mentioned on this forum as a typical figure for annual season tickets.

That does makes sense, because the smaller percentage is of a vastly increased amount (generally speaking). But it's still a percentage rather than a set figure 'off the top' of the transaction amount.

 

[johnnycache]

For TOC public websites for sales of season tickets the commission is 0%

TOC operated business travel services (eg smartrailwaytravel.com) earn commission at 2% for seasons

Third parties (like thetrainline) are not able to sell season tickets unless they are acting as an agent for an individual TOC

The point of sale will make no difference to the revenue allocation in this case
For journeys where there are alternative London terminals (eg London Bridge or Victoria to Brighton) if the ticket is purchased from one of those stations the ORCATS allocations from the point of purchase applies

 

[yorkie]

This helpful post by the knowledgeable barrykas may help:-

A user asked about commission earlier:

All online retailers get a small(ish) 2% commission fee for selling the ticket. At a booking office staffed by a TOC, they get 9%.

Not quite...There are different levels of commission depending on point of sale and ticket type, and those are enshrined in the Ticketing and Settlement Agreement (now up to version 9.3).

Standard rates are 2% for season tickets and 9% for almost everything else.

Internet and Business Travel Office sales earn a reduced rate of commission compared to stations, on-train and Telesales issues.

The 2% or 9% is deducted from the fare, and whatever is left is allocated through ORCATS,

If only it were that simple!

The seller gets a debit for the full cost of the ticket, but then gets a credit for the commission (if any).

The operators that get revenue from the ticket get credits for their percentage and debits for their share of the commission.

So if you have a ticket costing £120 and TOC A gets 50%, TOC B gets 25% and TOCs C and D get 12.5% each, and it's sold by TOC E at a station:

• TOC E gets a debit for £120 and a credit for £10.80.
• TOC A gets a credit for £60 and a debit for £5.40.
• TOC B gets a credit for £30 and a debit for £2.70.
• TOCs C and D get credits for £15 and debits for £1.35 each.

Thus ensuring the debits and credits balance each other.

Things get more complicated with season tickets, as the revenue from those is spread across the validity of the ticket and paid every four weeks.

Cheers,

Barry

(that was posted in early 2011 so it's possible it may have changed)

 

[Paul Kelly]

For journeys where there are alternative London terminals (eg London Bridge or Victoria to Brighton) if the ticket is purchased from one of those stations the ORCATS allocations from the point of purchase applies

That is a very tantalising statement. Does it mean, for example, if someone hypothetically wanted to spite Virgin, they could buy a Birmingham Stations to London Terminals ANY PERMITTED season at Moor Street, and Chiltern would get more than their fair share?

 

[wibble]

That is a very tantalising statement. Does it mean, for example, if someone hypothetically wanted to spite Virgin, they could buy a Birmingham Stations to London Terminals ANY PERMITTED season at Moor Street, and Chiltern would get more than their fair share?

Chiltern will receive the retail commission for selling the ticket but Virgin would receive the bulk of the season ticket money as they set the price for the Any Permitted fare.

 

[johnnycache]

To my knowledge that doesn't apply in Birmingham only in London
Basically its saying that if you have bought a ticket at a particular terminus then you have expressed your preferred route whereas if you just buy a London Terminals ticket anywhere else (say on-line) then the London Terminals allocation factors should be applied

 

[calc7]

Chiltern will receive the retail commission for selling the ticket but Virgin would receive the bulk of the season ticket money as they set the price for the Any Permitted fare.

Watch the causality here. It is not uncommon for a TOC to price a flow on which you cannot possibly used any of its services!

 

[jbb]

Thanks for the replies... So basically everyone gets more or less the same money regardless of where I buy the ticket, possibly a small amount of commission to the seller but it's not a large amount.