East Coast North/Scottish peak fare hike/simplification

[mikeg]

For a while those of you who travel from the North to Scotland will know that the regulated product has been the 'super off peak return (SSR)', which has had restriction 3V applied, and the off peak product has had only a nominal restriction for a slightly higher price (though the gap appeared to have widened somewhat since this policy was introduced).

I was looking for advances for my cousin wishing to travel from Thirsk or Northallerton to Edinburgh, when I discovered on the East Coast website that the fares for this flow are about to be changed.

It appears that (from the next NFM on?) the super off peak fares have been done away with and that now the regulated product forms the 'off peak return', now carrying a restriction that appears to be 3V. The anytime return has been reduced substantially, but not by enough to make it as cheap as the old off peak return. To be honest, I'm all for this type of simplification as it must have been confusing for the average passenger that 'off peak' is the ticket you want when you're travelling during the morning peak and super off peak when you're not! It's just a bit of a shame about the fare hike.

Anybody noticed any other differences to East Coast priced flows on WebTIS?

 

[Greeby]

I've done some checking on the upcoming Manual. Seems to be across the board on the "ECML north of Stevenage" pricing structure. The SVR has gone down to SSR price and restriction, thus eliminating Super Off-Peak. While the SOR has gone down to a level a little above the old SVR price.

It's about time somebody started dragging SOR's out of the insane triple-digit mark.

Edit - Just looked again. The sting in the tail to all this is that SOS is unchanged. Leaving the difference between SOS and SOR to be way smaller than it used to be

 

[Goatboy]

Is there further information behind these fare revisions? I thought rail fare revisions only took place in January? Are they network wide? Where can one look up the revised prices for comparative purposes?

 

[bb21]

Is there further information behind these fare revisions? I thought rail fare revisions only took place in January? Are they network wide? Where can one look up the revised prices for comparative purposes?

The main one usually coincides with the January fares round. There are three fare rounds in a year, to coincide with new NFM releases.

 

[Goatboy]

Ouch, so potential rises to look out for across the board then? Where can we find more detail on which fares are changing?

 

[Urban Gateline]

This is good news for those of us that are PRIV holders I guess, I very much welcome cheaper SOR's that might actually discourage me from using public Advances!

 

[Ebore]

This doesn't seem to have affected all flows (at least not yet). For example, York - Grantham still has a SSR (£42.80), SVR (£60.50) and SOR (£90) while York - Skegness only has a SVR (£49.90) and SOR (£68.50).

 

[reb0118]

This is good news for those of us that are PRIV holders I guess, I very much welcome cheaper SOR's that might actually discourage me from using public Advances!

Seconded! Although it may not make my rover ticket shenanigans as worthwhile.

As far as the public are concerned call a spade a spade if a ticket is virtually unrestricted (i.e not valid between the hours that no trains are running if you get my drift) then just make it an anytime.

 

[yorkie]

Here are some return fare examples. All to return a different day (ie, not Day Returns).

York-Doncaster
Pre 0930: Was Off Peak Return (£22.70). Now requires 2 x Anytime Day Single (£14.90 x 2 = £29.80), in practice you'd buy an Anytime Return to Mexborough (£22.30) but you have to be a fares expert to work this out. "Normal" passengers get chinged by about £7.50.
Post 0930: Fare remains unchanged (£21.30) however the name is changed.

York-Newcastle
Pre 0930: Was Off Peak Return (£52.00). Now requires Anytime Return (£56.00)
Post 0930: Fare remains unchanged (£39.50) however the name is changed

Newcastle-Edinburgh
Pre 0930: Was Off Peak Return (£61.00). Now requires Anytime Return (£65.00)
Post 0930: Fare remains unchanged (£48.30) however the name is changed

Live in Hitchin? Don't buy the Anytime Return to York priced at £215. Instead, buy from Arlesey, that's only £94.50, and a single from Hitchin to Arlesey is only £2.50 each way!

 

[Greeby]

Decided to go back and look for what should be the most extreme drop.

Biggleswade cluster (Biggleswade, Arlesey, Sandy) to the Far North and Kyl lines cluster.

Current SOR - £324.00
New SOR - £187.00

 

[34D]

Hello,

I was just looking up some fares to answer another thread on here, and I noticed something very disturbing indeed.

A couple of years ago, Arlesey (and points north thereof) used to have an 8E (I think) restriction on the off-peak return (SVR) which allowed travel on any train after 4am (or similar) when heading further up the ECML ie Leeds etc.

I've checked now, and these all appear to have been replaced by 3V restrictions (which is at or after 09:30). Example http://www.brfares.com/#fares?orig=ARL&dest=LDS&rlc=

Does anyone know when or why this was done? I assume the 'why' was to extract more profit.

Also the seven day season has gone up an immense amount from what it used to be. I had this ticket several times myself.

Not good.

 

[Greeby]

Hello,

I was just looking up some fares to answer another thread on here, and I noticed something very disturbing indeed.

A couple of years ago, Arlesey (and points north thereof) used to have an 8E (I think) restriction on the off-peak return (SVR) which allowed travel on any train after 4am (or similar) when heading further up the ECML ie Leeds etc.

I've checked now, and these all appear to have been replaced by 3V restrictions (which is at or after 09:30). Example http://www.brfares.com/#fares?orig=ARL&dest=LDS&rlc=

Does anyone know when or why this was done? I assume the 'why' was to extract more profit.

Also the seven day season has gone up an immense amount from what it used to be. I had this ticket several times myself.

Not good.

In the case of the walk-ups. It's basically cutting out money on the SOR that wasn't being made. Which is sadly the reason why the same process probably won't be applied to flows from/via KGX.

 

[t0ffeeman]

Some good news. East Coast have reduced their SORs from stations Arlesey to the north from double single to just above the single.

Examples all SOR PRV,

Arlesey - Newcastle £37.15
Arlesey - Glasgow/Edinburgh £37.50!!
Arlesey - Wick £46.75

Stevenage fares are still double the single so
Stevenage - Wick is £88.00!!

Arlesey - Carlisle, which priced by XC, used to be the cheapest ticket for Newcastle is now £46.00, just short of Wick!

These were hiked in price by NXEC a few years back, but the cynic in me says that they are using these fare reductions to increase others using the "fares basket".

Hope this helps a few PRV holders out!

 

[mikeg]

East Coast have dramatically reduced the price of SORs, abolished many SSRs and introduced the former SSR restriction on the SVRs, which are now priced the same as the former SSRs and now form the regulated walk-on product. I covered this in a thread about a month ago. For the most part I am in favour of this simplification, but it has created some new anomalies as other members of the forum pointed out on the old thread.

These were hiked in price by NXEC a few years back, but the cynic in me says that they are using these fare reductions to increase others using the "fares basket".

The SORs here are not regulated fares and thus do not form part of the fares basket. East Coast has the right to charge whatever it wants for them as long as it doesn't break competition laws and these fares have no effect on the level of the new SVRs. However since the SORs are still more expensive than the old (virtually unrestricted) SVRs this is still a price hike for non priv holders.