Ewell W to Leatherhead: Return costs more than 2 singles.

[DynamicSpirit]

Looking up some fares, I stumbled on this:
Ewell West to Leatherhead with a senior railcard:

Anytime single £3.10, Anytime return £6.25
Off-peak single £2.10, Offpeak return £4.25

The difference is small, but it means, whether going off-peak or peak, a return costs 5p more than 2 singles. That can't be intentional, surely?

https://www.brfares.com/!expert?orig=EWW&dest=LHD&rlc=SRN&period=20260705

 

[Watershed]

This is expected - or, well, foreseeable - due to the way the Railcard rounding rules work. The applicable percentage discount is applied and the result is then rounded down to the nearest 5p. Rounding down twice to the nearest 5p is likely to result in a bigger discount than rounding down just once.

The Railcard rounding rules were changed in 2019 to ensure that the advertised Railcard discount is always provided, rather than just rounding to the nearest 5p (whether up or down).

 

[CyrusWuff]

Just to provide the full detail:

The undiscounted Anytime Day Single is £4.70 and the Anytime Day Return is £9.40
The undiscounted Off-Peak Day Single is £3.20 and the Off-Peak Day Return is £6.40

Before rounding, the discounted fares are:

Anytime Day Single: £3.1302, Anytime Day Return: £6.2604
Off-Peak Day Single: £2.1312, Off-Peak Day Return: £4.2624

As @Watershed has mentioned, since 2019 discounted fares have always been rounded down to the next 5p, whereas they were previously rounded to the nearest 5p. Hence why the Railcard discount was previously set at 34% to ensure you got at least a third off.

 

[DynamicSpirit]

THanks, that's interesting and makes sense. So I guess that means on any flow where an (undiscounted) return costs exactly twice the price of a single, and where the single price is not a multiple of 15p, it's likely to be slightly cheaper for railcard holders to buy two singles instead of a return.

 

[NormalPerson7]

where the single price is not a multiple of 15p

The railcard discount is actually 33.4%, so it may still be the case for multiples of 15p.

E.g. undiscounted single £4.80, return £9.60
will be discounted to
single £3.15, return £6.35

 

[yorkie]

Does anyone know if the issue is worse since the Rail Delivery Group reduced the discount from 34% (in one of the most mean spirited and petty fares increases in railway history)?

 

[CyrusWuff]

Does anyone know if the issue is worse since the Rail Delivery Group reduced the discount from 34% (in one of the most mean spirited and petty fares increases in railway history)?

Looking at this specific example:

The Anytime Day Single would be £3.102 (rounded down to £3.10) with a 34% discount and the Anytime Day Return would be £6.204 (rounded down to £6.20.)
The Off-Peak Day Single would be £2.112 (rounded down to £2.10) and the Off-Peak Day Return would be £4.224 (rounded down to £4.20.)

So there would be no difference between 2x discounted Singles and the equivalent discounted Return.