XC steal fares from Chiltern!

[yorkie]

This is part of my Fares Advice article that appeared in the newly-published January edition of Railtalk magazine. Other topics covered include: railcard discount anomalies, GC ticket pricing and more

XC cause misery for Chiltern route passengers

Back in the July issue, we revealed how CrossCountry (XC) – now operated by the notorious bus company Arriva (shhh!!!) – were introducing draconian evening peak restrictions on Cheap Day Returns, now called Off Peak Day Returns, and morning peak restrictions on Off Peak returns. We also revealed how Richard from Banbury, when travelling to University, was incorrectly told by a member of XC staff that his ticket was not valid, when it was in fact perfectly valid as Chiltern set the fare.

XC threw a tantrum over this issue and demanded ATOC hand the flow from Chiltern to them. Disappointingly, ATOC’s Schemes Committee agreed to this demand. XC applied their usual policies by both increasing these fares higher than inflation and set their draconian restrictions to this flow. For Richard from Banbury, his fare has increased from £9.20 (valid for return within a month) to a shocking £15.70 (returning same day), or potentially up to £26.20 to return at a later day.

Worryingly, XC could be on the warpath to win more flows from other TOCs. Many flows are set by TOCs that operate out of London yet XC is the main carrier. If XC throws any more toys out the pram, and the spineless ATOC cave in to their demands, these increases could become more widespread at the next fares change.

Please post your views below.

 

[furryfeet]

do Chiltern have any right of appeal against ATOC's decision ?

e.g. via the Rail Regulator ?

Are the names of the members of this Schemes Committee to be made public so that they can be shamed in the press ?

 

[furryfeet]

as a follow up to your comment in the "economics of Apex fares thread", it there anything to prevent Chiltern from introducing their own "Chiltern only" set of walk up fares, to birmingham, from stations where chiltern still own the flow ?

Or even, reducing the fares from those stations in order to undercut Arriva and stop this nasty practice of whining to ATOC, before it spreads further ?

 

[glynn80]

as a follow up to your comment in the "economics of Apex fares thread", it there anything to prevent Chiltern from introducing their own "Chiltern only" set of walk up fares, to birmingham, from stations where chiltern still own the flow ?

Or even, reducing the fares from those stations in order to undercut Arriva and stop this nasty practice of whining to ATOC, before it spreads further ?

Yes the TOC that sets the flow cannot introduce their own set of walk-up fares that are restricted to their own operator.

If a rival TOC however introduces a "TOC Only" fare to compete with the TOC that sets the flow, the TOC that sets the flow can reduce their fare to a level which renders the "TOC Only" fare redundant. This situation happened between Cardiff and Swansea where FGW introduced their own FGW Only fares, ATW then decided to reduce their fares to the level of the FGW Only fares and thus the latter became useless.

 

[paul1609]

Yes the TOC that sets the flow cannot introduce their own set of walk-up fares that are restricted to their own operator.

If a rival TOC however introduces a "TOC Only" fare to compete with the TOC that sets the flow, the TOC that sets the flow can reduce their fare to a level which renders the "TOC Only" fare redundant. This situation happened between Cardiff and Swansea where FGW introduced their own FGW Only fares, ATW then decided to reduce their fares to the level of the FGW Only fares and thus the latter became useless.

In this case Chiltern could introduce their own lower fares by making them specific to Birmingham Snow Hill rather than Birmingham Stations. As only Chiltern/ London Midland serve Snow Hill they would receive the majority of the fare income excluding Arriva Cross Country.
Southern have done this for sometime with super off peak tickets which are only available to London Victoria rather than london Terminals. This spring Southern have introduced a London Victoria Season ticket at the same price as last years london terminals ticket;http://www.southernrailway.com/main.php?page_id=637
In the case of Birmingham I reckon Chiltern will wait to see how their revenue settles down with the new fares especially with the introduction of ticket barriers at Moor Street due in a couple of weeks.

 

[Mojo]

In the case of Birmingham I reckon Chiltern will wait to see how their revenue settles down with the new fares especially with the introduction of ticket barriers at Moor Street due in a couple of weeks.

If it gets listed buildings consent! A few objections have already been lodged. From what I remember of the documents, the plan is for three normal barriers and two wide aisles. It's going to be a nightmare!