The cost of rail travel will go up by 2.3% next year in what has been called a ‘kick in the teeth’ for passengers.
The rise will take effect from January 2 with it being warned that some passengers are in danger of being ‘priced off the railways’.
Read more: http://metro.co.uk/2016/12/02/cost-...e-teeth-for-passengers-6296656/#ixzz4RgGaKNf3
There will be a 2.3% rise in ticket price fares.
Looks like Northern have continued with the process they started last September of ironing out inconsistencies, as some fares are increasing and others appear to be frozen - there also seems to be more frozen Anytime fares than Off-Peak fares, for which most have increased by 10p or more. However, I've not come across any reductions.
Doesn't look as if the Leyland to Preston fares have changed at all, thankfully.
I know what you mean but I'll say this anyway...Unusually same for me
I know what you mean but I'll say this anyway...if the LEY-PRE fare hasn't changed for me it won't for you [emoji14]
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My Anytime fare to Manchester remains the same. The offpeak return is up 20p from £10.30 to £10.50. Advances continue to start at £2.00.
How much have rail fares risen over the years?
At around £5.46, the average price paid for a single journey is less now in real terms than it was ten years ago (£5.61 in 2016/2017 prices).
The average price paid per journey on a Season ticket has fallen in real terms by 12.8 per cent since 1999-2000.
So the average has fallen in real terms.
Can I add was? I'm sure it will be closed in due course.VTWC has introduced off-peak first class fares between London and Manchester. Result! £125 single. Not bad at all.
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They've even introduced off-peak first class fares between London and Chester and London and Warrington, Wigan and Preston. All £118 single (Preston is £125). Brave! There are a mere 26 first class seats on Voyagers (which, off-peak, generally operate in single unit formation on the Chester route), 15 of which are reservable, leaving just 11 seats for walk-up passengers. As for Warrington, Wigan and Preston, these lie on the Glasgow route which, due to having an inadequate hourly service, is by far the most consistently overcrowded route in first class, and this is reflected in Advance 1ST fares. For example, this coming Monday they are (from London to Warrington / Wigan / Preston):
09:30 - £102
10:30 - £229 (FDS - FULL)
11:30 - £102
12:30 - £229 (FDS - FULL)
13:30 - £75 (almost full)
14:30 - £182
19:30 - £142
With fares like these, why would anyone book an Advance 1ST ticket instead of a flexible and refundable £118 off-peak single fare?
Although all trains on the London to Glasgow (non-stop between London and Warrington) route are Pendolinos, a surprisingly large number are 9 cars. I expect passengers will regularly end up standing in 1st if this continues once off-peak first class fares are available. Ideally there should be a second train each hour from London terminating at Preston, relieving pressure from the Glasgow trains (which could then run non-stop to, at least, Lancaster).
Oddly, off-peak first class fares are not available for journeys from London to stations north of Preston, or stations west of Chester. It will be cheaper to buy an off-peak first class fare as far as Chester or Preston and combine this with a second first class fare which covers the remainder of the journey.
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Finally, they've also introduced off-peak first class fares from Milton Keynes to Chester / Manchester / etc, which have no evening peak restriction even though, since they are unregulated fares, VTWC would be free to add an evening peak restriction. So a first class 'off-peak' single on the 17:50 Milton Keynes (17:20 ex Euston) to Stoke-on-Trent (continuing to Manchester) costs £72, compared to £191 for a first class 'anytime' fare from London Euston. That's a considerable loophole.
Actually I felt there had to be a catch but thought I'd put it up as they do. Only fair to give them a chance and what better than on the fares forum which people more knowledgeable than myself than then shoot it down with better facts than I have.You've fallen for the political spin!
For single journeys they say the average price paid has fallen in real terms not the average cost of standard single tickets has fallen, so they are taking in to account cheap Advance single tickets when calculating the average. Yes cheap Advance tickets are great if they are available for the journey you are taking but for many journeys they aren't available.
The most commonly sold type of tickets are returns but they don't say anything about them. I wonder why.
Looks like Northern have continued with the process they started last September of ironing out inconsistencies, as some fares are increasing and others appear to be frozen - there also seems to be more frozen Anytime fares than Off-Peak fares, for which most have increased by 10p or more. However, I've not come across any reductions.
Wow.Northern "have an obligation" to get the Off-Peak Day fares to roughly 85% of the Anytime Day fares, part of this sees Anytime Day fares in Greater Manchester stay vaguely stable, whilst Off-Peak Day fares are hit by another rise of upto 50p, the second one in four months, with some fares having now risen by nearly 50% in that time.
Northern's briefing to staff is that Metrolink add-ons are remaining the same, but in actuality it appears that the entire fare is staying the same (for the second time in four months), meaning that, soon, fares to Manchester might get more expensive than fares via Manchester to Metrolink destinations.
Some fares are in the system, I don't know about all of them though.
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Oh, before I forget... Point to point seasons wholly within the GM area will no longer have the additional GM area validity at weekends. Any passengers who want that validity will have to buy a Traincard or Countycard.
Wow.
Mauldeth Road to Manc is now £3.10 CDR, Bolton to Wigan now £4.80, Wigan/Airport to Manc now £5.40.
Given the loss of the Evening Return and the introduction of evening peak restrictions, the price of some shorter journeys have nearly quadrupled in 3 years.
Yes passengers who wanted a return to Manchester from Mauldeth Rd on the 18.30 train could get a cheap evening return for 90p but now the train is 18.29 (although rarely leaves at 18.29) they need an anytime return for £3.70.
It's been different at least this year and last year for the January change - ATOC have stipulated that the new fares are to start being sold on the Friday before the traditional date on which they would have been on sale, and they are now requiring all suppliers of ticket issuing systems to implement support for a variable on-sale date. I'm not sure why the Friday - maybe they think that is a good day to bury bad news and it will be forgotten about come Monday?Unless they have done something different this year, new fares are loaded into the system and go live 28 days ahead, so in this case 5th December.
It's been different at least this year and last year for the January change - ATOC have stipulated that the new fares are to start being sold on the Friday before the traditional date on which they would have been on sale, and they are now requiring all suppliers of ticket issuing systems to implement support for a variable on-sale date. I'm not sure why the Friday - maybe they think that is a good day to bury bad news and it will be forgotten about come Monday?