London Midland Fares Review

[First class]

Attached as a word doc, the LM Fares Strategy for Sept 2011.

 

[sunday]

Another rise in fares? Not that I expected any differently but it makes me glad I will no longer be relying on LM services on a day to day basis by next month.

 

[bnm]

Anyone know what increases (if any) LM made to these unregulated fares in Jan and/or May?

 

[sunday]

Anyone know what increases (if any) LM made to these unregulated fares in Jan and/or May?

I believe (but I may be off with timing or percentage, this is from memory) that it was roughly a 5% increase then as well.

 

[bb21]

Here are some sample fares in NFM06/07/08/09.

Wolverhampton - Birmingham Stations (priced by Centro)
SDR £6.20/£6.20/£6.60/£6.60
CDR £4.30/£4.40/£4.40/£4.40
SDS £3.80/£3.80/£4.00/£4.00

Coventry - Lichfield City (priced by LM)
SDR £10.10/£10.10/£10.70/£10.70
CDR £8.70/£9.00/£9.00/£9.00
SDS £7.40/£7.40/£7.90/£7.90

It would seem that CDRs in the West Midlands area get adjusted in September each year.

Birmingham Stations - Liverpool Stations Route Crewe (priced by LM)
FOR £79.60/£82.00/£82.00/£82.00
FOS £39.80/£41.00/£41.00/£41.00
SOR £43.00/£45.60/£45.60/£45.60

All three fares were last adjusted in September 2010.

I don't know what LM means by 'Express Routes' so I don't know what examples to use.

Birmingham Stations - London Terminals Route London Midland Only
OPR £17.00/£17.50/£17.50/£18.00
OPS cost 10p less for all these periods.

OPR/S have seen the most frequent adjustments.

 

[OwlMan]

LM always do their main annual increase of unregulated in September, only regulated fares are usually increased in January although adjustments are made to some unregulated fares as well.

Peter

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Anyone know what increases (if any) LM made to these unregulated fares in Jan and/or May?

LM made a big change to the fares from Chester to Birmingham in May.
Fares were previously set by ATW and had an Any Permitted CDR at £17.10, valid via Crewe or Shrewsbury and on any operator.

The ATW fares went up a bit in May but were newly restricted to the slower Shrewsbury route.
Instead the Any Permitted fare is now set by LM and the cheapest is a SVR at £29.00 (no day return of any type).
So if you want to travel on the faster route via Crewe for the day it costs 60% more than before.

LM, unlike ATW or VT, do not even operate a through service.
The LM fares policy document mentions joint fares with ATW and maybe this is their clever idea to extract more revenue from the faster route.
It even suggests that the new SVR fare will go up further in September!
How is this compatible with the "RPI+3" formula?

 

[Paul Kelly]

An interesting question. Remember that for non-commuter flows, it is only where a saver and weekly season existed under British Rail that they are protected. No fares on the new Shrewsbury routeing will therefore be protected.

Anyway back to the question, it seems the Any Permitted SVR went down from £33.50 to £29 from NFM08 to NFM09. So I think there is plenty of scope to raise it again and keep within the limit.

 

[50010 Monarch]

LM made a big change to the fares from Chester to Birmingham in May.
Fares were previously set by ATW and had an Any Permitted CDR at £17.10, valid via Crewe or Shrewsbury and on any operator.

The ATW fares went up a bit in May but were newly restricted to the slower Shrewsbury route.
Instead the Any Permitted fare is now set by LM and the cheapest is a SVR at £29.00 (no day return of any type).
So if you want to travel on the faster route via Crewe for the day it costs 60% more than before.

LM, unlike ATW or VT, do not even operate a through service.
The LM fares policy document mentions joint fares with ATW and maybe this is their clever idea to extract more revenue from the faster route.
It even suggests that the new SVR fare will go up further in September!
How is this compatible with the "RPI+3" formula?

I noticed the other day that the B'ham/Wolves to Chester ATW fare was now not valid via Crewe. Used to be a good way to save a few pennies if travelling to Crewe or Warrington via Stafford!

 

[RJ]

Another rise in fares? Not that I expected any differently but it makes me glad I will no longer be relying on LM services on a day to day basis by next month.

As if there aren't periodic price rises on other TOCs/forms of transport!

 

[sunday]

As if there aren't periodic price rises on other TOCs/forms of transport!

I completely agree, however for me that is uneconomical as my wage has not risen anywhere near in proportion to my train fare over the last few years.

I quite enjoy catching the train to work but these rises combined with what I perceive to be falling standards of service by some operators and new restrictions on ticket validity make it difficult for me to justify taking the train to work every day, therefore I will no longer be doing so.

 

[317 forever]

I noticed the other day that the B'ham/Wolves to Chester ATW fare was now not valid via Crewe. Used to be a good way to save a few pennies if travelling to Crewe or Warrington via Stafford!

In 1997 I travelled from Chester to Wolverhampton, and found the cheaper fare via Shrewsbury but avoiding Crewe. It is probably cheaper that way because you are avoiding West Coast or Cross Country trains, although ironically XC and Arriva Trains Wales now share common ownership!