It's noted in this thread:
Either that's just an error, or they realise that last minute purchases on the last train of the day are generally distress purchases and they can charge what they like and maximise income? I wasn’t travelling myself, it was on behalf of someone else who asked my help with sorting their ticket...
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...that there's a choice between service reductions and fare increases to cut the cost of the railway to the Treasury. So what options are there to reduce services without causing major pain?
It should be noted that complete closures of any line or station, or reduction thereof to a Parliamentary service i.e. one at a useless time or uselessly infrequent compared to what runs now, are out of scope of this thread - it is purely about what could be done to save money by reducing services without major pain. Major pain would be making a service basically useless or causing severe overcrowding such that people would be left behind. If possible, give the users of the line/station something that they might like in return for the cuts, provided it does not substantially increase cost, thus negating the point. It is also unlikely to be viable to impose these cuts on main InterCity routes.
This is essentially in the spirit of the "Tartan Taktfahrplan", a scheme that took place in Scotland in the 1980s (?) which reduced services but brought them into a clockface pattern, which gave something in return for the cut. Thus, bonus for suggestions that make a line have a clockface service if it did not before, though there are exceptions where the frequency is below hourly when this starts to become a disbenefit rather than a benefit.
A few starters.
Tring semifasts - these are very quiet during the day on weekdays and at some times on weekends e.g. early Sunday mornings. While it would require diagram changes because they interwork with the MKC stopper, I would propose that these are reduced to a "peak extras only" service, including Saturday and Sunday shopping peaks (though how necessary the latter are would depend on passenger loading surveys). In compensation, the half-hourly MKC stoppers would be worked by 10-car 730/2 formations at all times, providing plenty of capacity. This would also reduce the need for shunting, which can be a cost saving in itself, if most 730/2s remained in semi permanent pairs.
Southport line - reduce to hourly, but find a way to make it an hourly Manchester Airport (or Piccadilly using the reversing siding)-Southport service as that seems to be what most users of that line want. A couple of peak extras each way to be added to Victoria. This is basically the pre-1998 but post-Windsor Link service. All services to be maximum length (4 car?)
WCML fast service - remove the newly introduced Birmingham semifast aside from peak extras; replace with adding the calls back into the Scotland service. This service is not well used and due to the high fares the 2tph Birmingham wasn't generally full because people prefer the WMT services as a better price-speed balance. Consider terminating some Scotland via Birmingham trains at Preston/Blackpool again if these are quiet.
Conwy Valley - reduce the number of train pairs slightly, but rather than a blind every-3-hours service target specific trains to specific purposes. I've proposed a timetable for this elsewhere before. Consider turning some trains at Betws to enable this further, but retain at least three trains per day south thereof, again with due consideration of times being most useful.
Morecambe - reduce to hourly clockface so far as possible; consider making it a simple single unit shuttle rather than through services from Yorkshire though these may be useful in terms of maintaining Heysham service.
Any more suggestions?
