Will fares rise for students going home?

[Nickt]

Am I being unduly cynical if I ask whether the price of tickets will suddenly be hiked in the face of a sudden rush of homeward bound students in early December?

 

[yorkie]

Am I being unduly cynical.....

Probably.

What sort of fare rise do you think might happen?

 

[ABB125]

I'm hoping the opposite, that the government will decide to give all students a free single ticket home from their university. Looks like my family has suddenly moved to Wick...

It's not going to happen though unfortunately

 

[telstarbox]

Unlikely. Students are quite price sensitive so TOCs would lose the business to coaches or parental lifts if they set prices too high. General demand for off peak travel is very low due to the second lockdown.

It's also a geographically diffuse market. Apart from a few small university towns (Bath, Durham, Loughborough) there aren't many flows which are obviously dominated by university students.

 

[Darandio]

Am I being unduly cynical if I ask whether the price of tickets will suddenly be hiked in the face of a sudden rush of homeward bound students in early December?

Do they suddenly hike prices every December when all students head home?

Despite the dramatic headlines about 'evacuation style' plans it's not a great deal different than what is seen over the course of 7 days in December in any year.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Am I being unduly cynical if I ask whether the price of tickets will suddenly be hiked in the face of a sudden rush of homeward bound students in early December?

Might seem that way *if* cheapo advances aren't available, and walk up off peak / anytime fares (or expensive advances) have to be purchased instead.

 

[Puffing Devil]

Unlikely. Students are quite price sensitive so TOCs would lose the business to coaches or parental lifts if they set prices too high. General demand for off peak travel is very low due to the second lockdown.

It's also a geographically diffuse market. Apart from a few small university towns (Bath, Durham, Loughborough) there aren't many flows which are obviously dominated by university students.

Parental lift is likely to be the main choice for many - they will be home for at least a month, with no guarantee of return early in January. That's more than a bagful of clothes to keep them going for a couple of weeks. Computers, books and a larger wardrobe will be coming back and that's more than can easily be brought on the train.

 

[Ianno87]

Parental lift is likely to be the main choice for many - they will be home for at least a month, with no guarantee of return early in January. That's more than a bagful of clothes to keep them going for a couple of weeks. Computers, books and a larger wardrobe will be coming back and that's more than can easily be brought on the train.

When I was a student (15 years ago), the majority of UK students were collected by parents for that reason - remembering also that tenancies often did not run across holidays in order to make rooms available for conference attendees (obviously not an issue this year).

I was one of the few who came home by train, basically carrying clothes, laptop and necessary Uni work. My lets always ran across holidays, so I could leave some stuff.

International students were a mix of those who flew home, or stayed for the entire holiday.

 

[jtuk]

When I was a student (15 years ago), the majority of UK students were collected by parents for that reason - remembering also that tenancies often did not run across holidays in order to make rooms available for conference attendees (obviously not an issue this year).

I was one of the few who came home by train, basically carrying clothes, laptop and necessary Uni work. My lets always ran across holidays, so I could leave some stuff.

International students were a mix of those who flew home, or stayed for the entire holiday.

When I was a student (also 15 years ago), this was only the case for freshers, everyone else was in private accommodation off campus that runs either September-June or a straight twelve month period

 

[Ianno87]

When I was a student (also 15 years ago), this was only the case for freshers, everyone else was in private accommodation off campus that runs either September-June or a straight twelve month period

Depends on Uni; mine had guaranteed campus accommodation for first years only, and optional only for final years. Everyone else had to live off-Campus.

Don't know what jurisdiction Universities have on applying isolation rules to off-campus students.

 

[Snow1964]

I am writing this having just had email forwarded to me from my daughter in her first year at university

In summary it says continue to follow lockdown rules until 2 Dec
There is a student travel window 3-9 Dec, ideally with staggered departure dates.

Students who test positive will need to self isolate before returning home. Also from 9-18 Dec (end of term), all teaching will be online.

It says University is liasing with NHS testing, and track & trace, and with travel providers, further info to follow

University is aiming to have more face to face and activities open from January (but awaiting Government guidance), implies intending to test again upon return (to avoid bringing infection back to campus), which might mean allocated arrival dates/times back to accommodation.

The big problem for train travel that I see is that the detail is currently light, and can’t really book an advance ticket if you don’t know in advance your testing day, and allocated departure day. Even when you do get these, need flexibility to defer for an isolation period at very short notice. So in practice might only get couple of hours notice to buy tickets which isn’t much of improvement over buying ticket when you arrive at station. Also unclear if you want to book a return ticket when your return date/time will be finalised.

So I suspect it won’t be will fares rise as per title, but more is the railway flexible enough to offer the cheap tickets which might need to be bought only after a test result for almost immediate travel.

 

[trainophile]

Wonder how rammed the trains will be that week for non-student travellers. I've got tickets (bought in Sept) to Edinburgh for 8th, returning 11th, mostly without seat reservations as they are either Day singles or TPE Advances. Hopefully they won't let so many students travel on a particular train that others cannot board/get a seat.

 

[Ianno87]

Wonder how rammed the trains will be that week for non-student travellers. I've got tickets (bought in Sept) to Edinburgh for 8th, returning 11th, mostly without seat reservations as they are either Day singles or TPE Advances. Hopefully they won't let so many students travel on a particular train that others cannot board/get a seat.

Why is it students who should get restricted to give everybody else priority in your world?

 

[Darandio]

Wonder how rammed the trains will be that week for non-student travellers. I've got tickets (bought in Sept) to Edinburgh for 8th, returning 11th, mostly without seat reservations as they are either Day singles or TPE Advances. Hopefully they won't let so many students travel on a particular train that others cannot board/get a seat.

University students have been treated like prisoners over the last 10 weeks or so. Locked in buildings, fed rations and in some cases fenced in. Their liberties have been far more restricted than ours.

If I was travelling, couldn't board a train because it was full of students and had to wait for the next then fair enough because they've been through enough already. Besides, if they've paid to travel then they have as much right as you to board!

 

[trainophile]

Why is it students who should get restricted to give everybody else priority in your world?

Blimey . Unnecessarily aggressive there. I never said any such thing, merely that if thousands of students are sold tickets for a few trains then there just might be a conflict of interests.

Okay, I will scrap my £157 ticket purchase from two months ago so that I can ensure the younger generation have priority.

University students have been treated like prisoners over the last 10 weeks or so. Locked in buildings, fed rations and in some cases fenced in. Their liberties have been far more restricted than ours.

If I was travelling, couldn't board a train because it was full of students and had to wait for the next then fair enough because they've been through enough already. Besides, if they've paid to travel then they have as much right as you to board!

I bet you wouldn't really be happy to wait for the next train if you have a six hour journey and it's 07:30 in the morning and an extra hour waiting on a cold platform until you can get going.

 

[Darandio]

I bet you wouldn't really be happy to wait for the next train if you have a six hour journey and it's 07:30 in the morning and an extra hour waiting on a cold platform until you can get going.

I bet you I would.

 

[Ianno87]

Blimey . Unnecessarily aggressive there. I never said any such thing, merely that if thousands of students are sold tickets for a few trains then there just might be a conflict of interests.

Okay, I will scrap my £157 ticket purchase from two months ago so that I can ensure the younger generation have priority.

You specifically singled out not letting students board, rather than passengers in general.

 

[trainophile]

You specifically singled out not letting students board, rather than passengers in general.

I said nothing about "not letting students board" - I merely hope that ticket sales will bear in mind that there might be some advantage to spreading the load over the full week. Also it would be helpful if students were requested to buy tickets in advance of their planned departure, rather than all crowd onto the same train with walk-up tickets.

 

[Ianno87]

I said nothing about "not letting students board" - I merely hope that ticket sales will bear in mind that there might be some advantage to spreading the load over the full week. Also it would be helpful if students were requested to buy tickets in advance of their planned departure, rather than all crowd onto the same train with walk-up tickets.

So...exactly like everybody else then? No need for you to single out students at all. Everybody will need to plan ahead at Christmas and not necessarily expect to board their intended train.

 

[trainophile]

So...exactly like everybody else then? No need for you to single out students at all.

But the discussion is about students being given a short window to travel en masse. I didn't single out students, the topic did.

 

[Ianno87]

But the discussion is about students being given a short window to travel en masse. I didn't single out students, the topic did.

Other people can plan to travel outside this window if necessary. We're all in this together, and all that.

 

[trainophile]

Other people can plan to travel outside this window if necessary. We're all in this together, and all that.

Not unless the lockdown is extended so we can get ticket and hotel refunds. Otherwise we are stuck with our original plans. I would very much like to avoid that week because when we booked we had no idea that this would happen.

 

[Ianno87]

Not unless the lockdown is extended so we can get ticket and hotel refunds. Otherwise we are stuck with our original plans. I would very much like to avoid that week because when we booked we had no idea that this would happen.

Unfortunately there's a pandemic on, so we all have to live with uncertainty for our plans.

 

[greyman42]

Wonder how rammed the trains will be that week for non-student travellers. I've got tickets (bought in Sept) to Edinburgh for 8th, returning 11th, mostly without seat reservations as they are either Day singles or TPE Advances. Hopefully they won't let so many students travel on a particular train that others cannot board/get a seat.

Yesterday i tried to make a seat reservation for the 5 December on the 1257 York to London service. It was already fully booked, both first and standard.

 

[Snow1964]

Of course if students are only allowed to travel after being given a negative Covid test, is there any purpose in limiting seats and social distancing for carriages allocated to students.

So the fully booked might be a bit misleading, might be based on social distancing of untested general public and leaving 70% (or whatever latest fraction is) of seats empty

 

[yorkie]

Yesterday i tried to make a seat reservation for the 5 December on the 1257 York to London service. It was already fully booked, both first and standard.

Are you sure it's actually fully booked? Or could it be not currently open for bookings? I suspect the latter as all the LNER's around that time are showing no availability. Yet looking at the seat selector, the 1353 GC has dozens of seats available.

Of course if students are only allowed to travel after being given a negative Covid test, is there any purpose in limiting seats and social distancing for carriages allocated to students.

So the fully booked might be a bit misleading, might be based on social distancing of untested general public and leaving 70% (or whatever latest fraction is) of seats empty

I don't know how you this proposal could work but feel free to post your suggestion in the Speculative Ideas section.

 

[greyman42]

Are you sure it's actually fully booked? Or could it be not currently open for bookings? I suspect the latter as all the LNER's around that time are showing no availability. Yet looking at the seat selector, the 1353 GC has dozens of seats available.

I was able to book seat on the 1235. Today i tried to book a seat for the 9 December n the 1257 and again there was no availability so booked the 1235 instead. I suspect that LNER are planning to cut most of their "fasts" from the timetable.

 

[philjo]

The front page of the business section of today’s Daily Telegraph reports that National Express are planning an operation to run hundreds of coaches directly from Universities. It is currently in discussions with Universities to gauge demand and special routes required.

‘Operation Chris Rea’: National Express to drive students home for Christmas

Ministers have announced a 'travel window' in early December allowing students to travel home to see their families for the festive season

www.telegraph.co.uk

National Express is to spearhead the mass repatriation of university students in time for Christmas by laying on hundreds of Covid-secure coaches.

The operator is in talks with universities as part of an evacuation initiative to get more than a million youngsters home to their loved ones over the festive season.

The Department for Education has announced a “student travel window” between Dec 3 and Dec 9 to minimise the spread of coronavirus as undergraduates return to stay with their families.

This exodus is to be staggered following a mass on-campus testing programme announced by ministers on Tuesday. Students testing positive for Covid will need to self-isolate for 10 days.

Teaching will move online from Dec 9 in England and Dec 3 in Wales in a bid to minimise mixing.

National Express is racing to gauge the level of demand from universities and finalise special routes ahead of the second lockdown in England coming to an end on Dec 2. It is thought students would pay for a ticket home and each coach would stop off at several city centre locations...

 

[PTR 444]

The front page of the business section of today’s Daily Telegraph reports that National Express are planning an operation to run hundreds of coaches directly from Universities. It is currently in discussions with Universities to gauge demand and special routes required.

‘Operation Chris Rea’: National Express to drive students home for Christmas

Ministers have announced a 'travel window' in early December allowing students to travel home to see their families for the festive season

www.telegraph.co.uk

A transport planner’s wet dream, assuming they can gather all the flow demand pretty soon.

 

[mawallace]

Heard a universitystudent on the radio saying that as the Goverment are making them travel during a period of time -and some will be allocated a day to leave - that they should pay the train ticket!