Blatant media plug for Open Access in "The Independent"

[yorkie]

...doing a revenue Orcats Raid on the existing LNER substantial flows from say York to London...

Which trains do you think are 'orcats raiding', and roughly what proportion of Yorkshire to London traffic so you think is on inter-available tickets these days?

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 2 May 2025 ==

Are there still any major or well known non open access services that effectively exist for the sole purpose of ORCATS raiding instead of providing an actual service. I'd have guessed many of these would have disappeared during COVID, but some must remain.

I doubt it. The phrase is generally used by people who don't like a particular operator (often open access) without any evidence.

The people who throw the phrase around typically don't really understand what it actually means, and certainly don't have access to the data that would demonstrate if their claim was actually true.

 

[Trainbike46]

Simon is a well-travelled and rail-friendly journalist, home and abroad.
He's entitled to pick the good and bad in the current regulatory setup, and show the paradoxes that result.
He is also on the side of the average passenger rather than the corporate bodies (or enthusiasts), and doesn't get involved in promotional freebies like some of the media.

And how exactly does anything he suggests in this article (OAOs not accepting railcards, OAOs and BR/DfT TOCs no longer selling each others tickets, etc. help "the average passenger"

Which trains do you think are 'orcats raiding', and roughly what proportion of Yorkshire to London traffic so you think is on inter-available tickets these days?

Since LNER abolished the super-off-peak single, I would estimate approximately none, as advances are operator-specific tickets.

 

[TUC]

Rather a media plug by presumably an Open Access PR person in The Independent extolling all the supposed disadvantages these poor operators are somehow subjected to financially, without mentioning any of the upsides.

MSN

You have to know a bit about the overall industry to see it's pretty one sided. It's apparently "unfair" that the ECML Open Access operators have to pay a sales commission to GNER for sales on the latter's website. I would have thought, for a freely provided further ticket distribution channel, that was pretty welcome. But no mention of the tremendous upside they get from doing a revenue Orcats Raid on the existing LNER substantial flows from say York to London, while all the publicity says how wonderful they are at providing a novel service from Hartlepool. As here.

Why shouldn't a media article choose to take a particular perspective in favour of open access? They're free to do so. There's no inherent reason for regarding other models of operation as being anything special.

 

[Adam Williams]

He is also on the side of the average passenger

by arguing they shouldn't be able to benefit from their Railcard, or be able to see OAO ticket prices via all booking channels?

Edit: @Trainbike46 beat me to exactly this point!

 

[BlueLeanie]

Simon is a well-travelled and rail-friendly journalist, home and abroad.
He's entitled to pick the good and bad in the current regulatory setup, and show the paradoxes that result.
He is also on the side of the average passenger rather than the corporate bodies (or enthusiasts), and doesn't get involved in promotional freebies like some of the media.

I've been in the check-in queue behind him when he has refused a freebie seat upgrade.

Was so chuffed I got it instead. It was only Economy to Premium Economy, but it was so much more comfortable.

 

[Benjwri]

by arguing they shouldn't be able to benefit from their Railcard, or be able to see OAO ticket prices via all booking channels?

Edit: @Trainbike46 beat me to exactly this point!

I’d rather suggest them not being able to see OAO tickets via all channels would be a huge own goal! Public operators have to advertise their often cheaper competitors!

What they really want is to get that for free. I’m also sure they would want to keep getting the ORCATs money for Railcard discounted tickets, even if they didn’t accept them.

 

[Jimini]

I've been in the check-in queue behind him when he has refused a freebie seat upgrade.

Was so chuffed I got it instead. It was only Economy to Premium Economy, but it was so much more comfortable.

I worked with him many moons ago at The Independent (back in its print days). I can safely say that he's one of the nicest blokes you'd ever have the pleasure of talking to!