Can TOCs price Anytime tickets lower than off-peak?

[tasky]

Does anybody know exactly how much freedom TOCs have to set non-regulated fares?

If they chose to do so, would it be possible to price an anytime return lower than the regulated off-peak return?

You might ask why they would want to do this... and the examples are of course limited.

But with a lot of spare seat capacity flying around on previously rammed cash-cow peak-time commuter services in the south east of England, a peak time fare cut may not be as outlandish as a strategy to maximise revenue as previously.

Of course whenever fare cuts are mentioned people point out that the DfT sets the cheapest fares. But are there any restrictions on TOCs offering a cheaper unregulated ticket?

 

[Bletchleyite]

Yes, TOCs can set unregulated fares to whatever they like, though I'm not sure in the current situation there's such thing as an unregulated fare.

They are also (despite both Avanti and LNER telling lies about this), or were during franchising, able to reduce regulated fares as much as they wanted, too, but if it is done for too long a period (rather than an offer) the lower value becomes the regulated fare so they are reluctant to do so. This actually happened when Virgin abolished SuperSavers and set the Saver (now Off Peak) to the average of the two to compensate, which then became regulated, and is why Off Peaks on the WCML are a bit cheaper than most other London-centric IC lines.

 

[tasky]

They are also (despite both Avanti and LNER telling lies about this), or were during franchising, able to reduce regulated fares as much as they wanted, too, but if it is done for too long a period (rather than an offer) the lower value becomes the regulated fare so they are reluctant to do so. This actually happened when Virgin abolished SuperSavers and set the Saver (now Off Peak) to the average of the two to compensate, which then became regulated, and is why Off Peaks on the WCML are a bit cheaper than most other London-centric IC lines.

Very interesting, thank you - this was going to be my follow-up question. That's an interesting dynamic with the new fare becoming the new regulated base fare

 

[paul1609]

Yes, TOCs can set unregulated fares to whatever they like, though I'm not sure in the current situation there's such thing as an unregulated fare.

They are also (despite both Avanti and LNER telling lies about this), or were during franchising, able to reduce regulated fares as much as they wanted, too, but if it is done for too long a period (rather than an offer) the lower value becomes the regulated fare so they are reluctant to do so. This actually happened when Virgin abolished SuperSavers and set the Saver (now Off Peak) to the average of the two to compensate, which then became regulated, and is why Off Peaks on the WCML are a bit cheaper than most other London-centric IC lines.

If by Southeast you mean Southern, Southeastern, Thameslink the spare seats have been removed by slashing the services and reducing train lengths of what's left. That's how the class 455, 313 fleets are being withdrawn without replacement and the class 171 fleet reduced by half.