You could indeed go down that path although DfT / Treasury may frown at a universal National Railcard giving a further discount.
I'm sure you wouldn't welcome the restrictions which might be journeys between midday and 3pm only, then after 8pm in the evening, seven days a week. Frankly that sort of thing is better done with book on the day advances.
Better for the railway, not necessarily me.
I suspect you are referring to fares set by the East Coast operator, where the super-off-peak means something different (the same as off-peak returns elsewhere) from what it means, for example, on LNR services.
That would be the idea subject to availability on the preferred train and the passenger being happy with the additional payable / refund offered. It would be very much a digital system (making one QR code invalid and issuing another is simple) which is where the industry says it wants to go.
TOCs would reduce the number of Advance fares and the number available at the cheapest tier if they were given the sort of freedom you desire.
That has already happened and it doesn't appear to be reducing off-peak custom at the busy times. However, the removal of the cheapest tiers at less busy times does potentially seem to be leading to light loadings.
Which is why some form of fares regulation needs to be retained. The TOCs would love to abolish it but we should be very wary of any attempts to do so.
So long as those fares were subject to existing railcard discounts yes that's fine.
No, you’ve missed the key point that TOCs would need total freedom to set price and volume. Under current contracts the only way to maximise profit is to maximise revenue. TOC private management understands discounted tickets have a role to play here (ask Lumo or Ryanair). DfT is hands-on at the moment and doesn’t get it at all - useless.
I've not missed the point at all.
There would be full regulation under my proposal. Off-Peak fares have always been regulated and would continue to be so. Anytime fares would be brought under regulation by the maximum 50% uplift on an Off-Peak fare, and it would be mandatory for Advance fares to offer a reduction (you could say minimum 10%) over the cheapest walk-up fare on each service. You could introduce a minimum volume criteria for Advance fares too but leave the pricing (within the rules above) and additional volumes to TOCs.
Good point about volumes of advance fares - see my post above for a possible solution. However, why would a TOC cut the volume of Advance fares when such tickets maximise revenue? It’s the DfT that thinks discounted fares are bad despite all studies (rail and other transport) and experience proving yield management maximises revenue.
That would be my preference too, however, some of what I’ve considered leans towards getting DfT on board too, which almost certainly means nothing will change at all!
The idea is that customers self-select. You price the railcard so that it only makes financial sense for the passenger if they make frequent journeys.
Those only reward people who make the same journey regularly. Leisure travellers will do that to a massively lesser extent than commuters.
Okay, I assumed some benefit from additional revenue earned would feature in the performance related management fees. Given the current need to increase revenue it’s certainly required and should be part of an addendum when (if ever!) a better fares structure is implemented.
I am probably an outlier but I tend to avoid advance tickets even if it means paying more, as I don't want to be allocated a seat. ( obviously seat allocation doesn't apply to all operators ) .
.I don't think it does at all
That demand is likely to show some elasticity. People have reasons to travel.
Do you have any evidence for this statement?
