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The Anytime Return from Market Harborough to Bedford is £41.80
The Anytime Return from Market Harborough to Northampton is £33.50 and valid via Bedford
Why would a traveller not just buy the Northampton ticket and stop short at Bedford? Would that break any rules?
EMR have been increasing the cost of some of their MML flows to the maximum extent they can get away with, I would guess they forgot to give similar treatment to fares to Northampton.
Someone who is "in the know" could indeed do this. However, once the current "fares freeze" is over, if too many people did it, I suspect EMR would try to increase the cost as rapidly as they can get away with.
Text alternative: Market Harborough to Northampton fares routed "via Bedford" were more expensive than fares to Bedford, ranging from £16.20 for an Anytime Day Single u to £42.40 for an Anytime First Return.
As can be seen above, the fares to Northampton were consistently more expensive than to Bedford back then.
Off Peak Return to Northampton has gone up from £16.40 to £29.40 (should be £28.05 based on Bank of England inflation calculator)
Off Peak Return to Bedford has gone up from £15.20 to £31.50 (should be £26.00 based on Bank of England inflation calculator)
You are right that WMT set the fares to Northampton, which will be why EMR are powerless to do anything about this.
Sadly, this sort of example is used by anti-passenger consultants who are trying to encourage the industry to implement their vision of "fares reform", their argument goes that the "problem" here is apparently not EMR being too expensive, but WMT being too cheap.
Make no mistake, companies like EMR are desperate for fares to be reformed in a way that allows them to increase the prices to unaffordable levels that price many people off, without other companies, or pesky fares regulation, getting in their way.
EMR, and other operators like them, know their trains will often be very full at any almost any price, as there is nowhere near enough capacity to satisfy the potential demand, and are keen to kill off walk-up travel and get people on Advance fares.
It's sad to see walk-up rail travel become increasingly unaffordable, but at least Off Peak fares are still available on EMR, for the time being...
The ticket will be using Bedford-Bletchley, not London. Your point still stands, but the real use is just Market Harborough-Bedford using a cheaper ticket.
We need to keep an eye on this one and look for any evidence in future of EMR and/or RDG attempting to put the price up.
The real issue here is absolutely that EMR have increased their fares by far too much, but the anti-passenger brigade don't see the world from the perspective of ordinary fare paying people who simply want remotely affordable walk up travel.
FTR (a combination of DfT/GBR-within-Network Rail) is the project team managing the strategic development of fares, ticketing and retailing in advance of GBR formally being set up. Neither the TOC or RDG drive this. FTR is directed by Government funding and policy.
Most people aren’t minded to do things like that. And when people post things like this in public, especially on this forum, there has been a long established pattern of the route validity changing shortly after to stop people being able to save money in this way.
Most people aren’t minded to do things like that. And when people post things like this in public, especially on this forum, there has been a long established pattern of the route validity changing shortly after to stop people being able to save money in this way.
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