Off peak return East Coast only York-London

[mikeg]

I was planning a journey to London and looking through the fares I notice there's now an off peak return East Coast only fare for that journey. How is this possible, I thought East Coast were the lead operator for that flow and can't therefore create fares like this.

Edit; I see, I believe its a temporary fare which lead operators are allowed to make TOC-specific for a limited period of time, like Club 55 on TPE.

 

[yorkie]

It constantly re-appears, then gets withdrawn in order to count as a 'trial' then gets re-introduced again. It's to compete with GC.

 

[Deerfold]

I wonder if we'll see something similar between Doncaster and London to compete with the new Bradford Interchange-London service or if EC thinks the times on that aren't appealing enough.

 

[mikeg]

Of course, if they really wanted to compete with GC they could just lower the interavailable fare and make things much simpler... but what's the chances of that happening?

 

[brompton rail]

I wonder if we'll see something similar between Doncaster and London to compete with the new Bradford Interchange-London service or if EC thinks the times on that aren't appealing enough.

East Coast have had an EC only First Class Anytime fare between Doncaster and London for some time. Hull Trains offers greater competition than does Grand Central.

Incidentally there are also TOC specific First Class fares (Anytime Single and Return) going north - XC's fares are dearer than EC's, strange given the poor First Class service on XC compared to East Coast.

 

[Greenback]

East Coast have had an EC only First Class Anytime fare between Doncaster and London for some time. Hull Trains offers greater competition than does Grand Central.

Incidentally there are also TOC specific First Class fares (Anytime Single and Return) going north - XC's fares are dearer than EC's, strange given the poor First Class service on XC compared to East Coast.

Not that strange considering XC have delibnerately raised all of their First Class fares in order to rip off, er, I mean maximise their revenue...

 

[mikeg]

There also seems to be an East Coast anytime standard class return between Doncaster and London, and checking forward there doesn't seem to be any expiry on it in the near future. Surely this is against the ticketing and settlement agreement to do this? Temporary fares are one thing, but setting both an interavailable fare and a TOC specific fare raises a conflict of interest. If the competitions too much they should lower the interavailable fare.