I've only read up to chapter 4 so far, so some of my comments below may be answered in later chapters. The review on the whole seems to encourage greater transparaency. It certain has some ideas I approve of.
The thing about regulating long distance fares is that a journey from Weymouth to Dover could be considered long distance in terms of time it takes to get there but I doubt you'd find any advance purchase fares between the two places because they straddle two or three train operators. I would prefer advance purchase to apply to any destination. It doesn't have to be every train, if they need to regulate it for passenger numbers but there must surely be quieter periods of the day when travelling between Weymouth and Dover. I only use that as an example.
It seems to be me that you have travel either north of London; west on FGW; or east on Greater Anglia to get advanced purchase fares that are not restricted to just one train operator. Actually I'm not 100% certain about Greater Anglia and advanced purchase tickets involving other train companies.
For example many advance purchase fares exist between Reading and Oxford but none between Readiing and Guildford, bar one in the early morning from Guildford to Reading and one in the afternoon from Reading to Guildford. Oxford is no further away in distance than Guildford, so why is Oxford worthy of an advance purchase ticket. Is the market more competitive there? Will we start to see innovations in pricing only where there is train operator competition.
I've read nothing about dealing with two tickets being cheaper than one. For example on Dec 7 around 3pm, the fares to Manchester from Harrow at £14. From Euston they are £12.50. If a passenger has a zones 1-5 Oyster Card, it is cheaper for them to travel into London. This will be because from Euston they are only travelling on one train company. Whether this could be explained in a handy document for passengers I don't know. All they need to point out is that if you'er going north it may be cheaper from another station if the journey from that station involves just 1 train operator.
Instead of stating that the ticket can only be used at certain times of the day [photo on page 55], how about actually printing the times on each ticket. After all the systems selling the tickets know when they are valid. By printing the times, users would know without having to ask someone else. That would make it even more transparent. I think there should be a review of negative easements and whether these are explained to passengers well enough. The new tickets list more information but I bet the any permitted won't say which routes are not permitted on the any permitted. Would issuing a piece of paper, with every ticket purchased, listing all the easements that apply to the journey the person is making, be feasible? Then passengers might have a better understanding. I certainly think the routing guide and easements should be better promoted for transparency.
The government wants rail companies to use plain english. Will this extend to the easements, which whether written in plain english or not, can be confusing at times and lead people to wonder what is valid. For example I am not always certain if I can double back between Waterloo and Victoria. I did so once only because I had an itinerary that showed I could.
Should their be a review and consultation on the routing guide itself. Yes not many passengers would respond but surely people in the industry would, along with knowledgable people not working in the industry.
I certainly agree with the following, if implemented well "In addition, where planned changes lead to a reduction in staff cover at stations, explicit consideration should be given as to how to continue to make services such as waiting rooms and toilets available to the public. " Currently if ticket office hours change then so do the toilet opening hours. Rail companies claim they need to close them in order to keep them available to passengers. Well they certainly are not available if they are shut.
I wonder how many toilets exist at stations still in use compared to the total number of toilets in use across all the same stations back in the 1950s. Personally I prefer to know that the station toilet is open. Alternatively I would be happy for toilets to be available on all trains.
Given the cost of buying houses on the Guildford New line, in the villages between Guildford and Surbiton, I am surprised that first class carriages have not been introduced. Surely there must be customers who would pay more, like they do on the Portsmouth Direct line through Guildford. By offering such carriages, it would be another way to raise further revenue.
