NEwcastle-Alnmouth

[YorkshireBear]

If I (well my girlfriend) has a ticket boughtfrom newcastle to alnmouth with cross country, why does it cost less with XC than EC for same route on anytime fares? im confused. If it was advance if get it but its anytime fares on same route why are they different prices?

 

[DaveNewcastle]

If I (well my girlfriend) has a ticket boughtfrom newcastle to alnmouth with cross country, why does it cost less with XC than EC for same route on anytime fares? im confused. If it was advance if get it but its anytime fares on same route why are they different prices?

Why not? I'm confused.

2 companies offer competing services - they can offer similar or different services and can charge similar or different prices. That's a market economy at work - we see it every day with goods in shops, telecoms suppliers, financial services, healthcare services. What's the mystery?

All over the UK you'll find competing TOCs offering different prices for the same journey but on different trains. You'll generally find XC fares to be lower than EC's where the two companies operate over the same route. (But I don't like their noisy and cramped, plastic-fitted trains!)

 

[cuccir]

The two tickets are not quite identical either. The Cross Country ticket allows you to take Cross Country Trains only (7 services each way), whilst the other ticket is valid on all trains, East Coast, Cross Country and Northern Rail (15 services each way). So like an advance ticket, you pay less but restrict yourself to fewer services.

But I don't like their noisy and cramped, plastic-fitted trains!

They can be bad, but (in my experience) it's rare for them to be as busy on the Newcastle-Edinburgh stretch.

 

[YorkshireBear]

but it didnt say advance thats what confused me....

 

[yorkie]

There are loads of walk-on fares that are TOC-specific! Any TOC that does not set the fare is allowed to do this. If they do set the fare, they can only do so for promotions, with some odd exceptions that no-one so far have been able to explain such as Milton Keynes to London, where LM have been allowed to set their own CDR fare, despite pricing the Any Permitted.

XC will get between a quarter to a third of the £10.30 Any Permitted fare, but will get all of the £8.10 fare (if bought on board - which they are happy to do), or about 90% of it if you buy elsewhere. So you can see why they do it. There would be nothing to stop East Coast doing the same, but EC don't generally sell EC-only walk-on fares except for in Scotland.

I am surprised you've not heard of this before, there are numerous threads about it. All the open access operators offer TOC specific fares, and many of the 'commuter' TOCs that share routes with 'InterCity' TOCs do so too. Plus many more.