Financial Times article about Rail Fares

[Paul Kelly]

There was a reasonably good article about rail fares in the Financial Times a couple of weeks ago. The main thrust was about the massive drop in season ticket sales since the pandemic, with quite a lot of data (from ORR and BR Fares, with credit) and charts showing how seasons are not the best value if you don't need to travel on the majority of days in each week.

The journalist also asked me for my thoughts about fares in general and I was quite surprised to see that he published my comments quite unmodified, pointing out how the big push towards advance fares and in particular the removal of walkup fares on LNER reduces flexibility and in many cases amounts to a back door price increase.

It's behind a paywall so I can't quote it, but I've done a trial subscription - this might work for sharing the article: https://on.ft.com/4fxtUH6

Sales of annual or monthly season tickets, which allow unlimited travel between two stations and offer a small discount compared with buying tickets every weekday, have collapsed in the past five years...

Off-peak tickets, which allow travel outside of the morning and evening peaks, now account for 46 per cent of all journeys, up from 34 per cent in 2019...

 

[aron2smith]

Your link let me look at the article just fine. Pretty interesting article.

They put your thoughts in at the very end. It says:

Paul Kelly, founder of ticket comparison website BR Fares, says that the removal of some off-peak tickets and the rise of advanced tickets has led to a “loss of flexibility” and can “amount to a backdoor price increase”.

I strongly agree. We have seen exactly that with LNER already. The 70-minute flex has led to some very bizarre anomalies as the price is wildly different every time, and it seems their attitude is very much tough, it hasn't simplified fares, in fact it's doubled down on a mad system. I only ever use LNER when I buy an All Line Rover as I can't be bothered with it. £124 London to Edinburgh single (actually £136, I got confused with the Lumo ticket!) or just over £400 for a week of unlimited travel with a railcard, mad innit?!

I did Enfield Lock on the edge of London to Plymouth and back last week, a super off peak was cheaper than an advance. £90 for a flexible versus £100 for 2 advances, if the rest of the railway copies LNER, I would probably stick to the areas around London and have to go back to coaches to visit friends and family, would be a real shame. Flexibility when travelling is very important and essential to me.

The 1st comment to the article sums it up perfectly, as they plainly said they would fly to Scotland and hire a car next time they want to go to Perth. Thanks to LNER's policies making it impossible for them to get a cheaper 1st class ticket! Even for them, the price is artificially too high now!

LNER and the DFT are playing a dangerous game, take the mickey on an already overpriced railway and removing the flexibility and people will start to stay away.

If they really want to make fares simple, they would eliminate most if not all the TOC only tickets, no more anytime or off-peak. Base everything on Super Off Peak prices and introduce a graduated distance based fare system. Could probably reduce the whole system to possibly 100 ticket types. And advance fares should stay, but not be forced on people, and they really need to make it possible to pay the difference on board the 'wrong' train.

I wish special offers like Greater Anglia's Hare Fares were more common, too.

Also, I use your website all the time to ensure I'm not being ripped off. I love how simple and easy to use BR Fares is, shame our railway isn't like that.

 

[jfollows]

Article from 3 August, thanks for the pointer.

I must have missed it myself; I have a subscription.

You can’t use the interactive stuff from the PDF of course; Manchester Piccadilly to London is not unique in being cheaper 2 days a week with a season ticket than daily return tickets, but from places more traditionally thought of as London commuter land it’s true that travel needs to be for 4 days a week to make a season ticket worth it.

Although Covid exacerbated the change, it’s not as if it wasn’t already happening, and in London the convenience and simplicity of contactless will have played a large part in that, I’m sure.

 

[yorksrob]

Well done @Paul Kelly for bringing this to the attention of the press.

For a Government that see's GBR as a flagship policy, it should realise that the general perception of a lack of affordability of fares will likely see it fail to be a success in the eyes of the public.

 

[styles]

I haven't had a season ticket in a long time. For a few years in the Midlands it was quicker to cycle or take the tram/bus.

Then I was living in London zone 2, working in zone 1, and the cost of a travelcard (currently just under £1,800) was my main motivation for cycling. Funnily enough when we moved to London we contemplated living further out and commuting in, as the rent would be cheaper, but then you look at how much 2 people would spend on travelcards and your rent savings can be eaten up entirely in many cases, not to mention the time spent. So when I see that advice I do sometimes challenge people to do a proper household budget including travel then weigh up options.

Then we went remote because pandemic. Some people who didn't have long left on their season tickets were ineligible for refunds, e.g. season tickets in TfL land I think you needed 6 weeks+ left to be eligible. On ScotRail the annual season tickets are calculated as 40 weeks paying the weekly season tickets, with 12 weeks 'free', which meant if you had used your season ticket for 40 weeks, you were eligible for a refund of nil. So not only will season ticket revenue drop from changing work patterns, but maybe even from reduced confidence, as I imagine a lot of travellers would've expected a pro rata refund. I would've been annoyed personally anyway.

We returned to 1 day in the office a fortnight. Wasn't going to get a season ticket for that!

I changed jobs to somewhere in zone 2, just 3 tube stops away. Can't justify £1300 for that either, so cycling it was.

Then moved north and mainly remote.

I've since had a few clients I've considered taking on where I'd go on-site 3 days a week, and season tickets just don't usually to work out price wise. I'd be going for monthly season tickets rather than annual due to nature of some clients, and I often find the monthly season to be pricier compared to buying on the day, let alone in advance.

To throw a regional spanner into the figures - with ScotRail ditching peak fares for good in a few weeks time, the season tickets will only represent value for money for those routes where no off peak tickets are available, or people who need to spend their day shuttling between two places. I'm not sure what the full plan is for season ticket price changes.

So for commuting the answer is often advance fares, and for leisure it seems the government is trying to drive us towards advance fares via LNER 'trials'.

 

[zoneking]

I read the article. Surely it is time to reprice annual season tickets so they are calculated at 3 working days a week plus 4 weeks holiday. This would be approx 31 weeks. TOCs need the certainty of annual seasons. People will buy them if they are not too expensive.

 

[aron2smith]

Also to add to the point. The Finsbury Park Super Off Peak workaround is still available, capped at £63.50 single for a trip to Edinburgh if using a railcard. A very quick look on LNER showed singles on advance tickets up to £90 each way, with the 70 minute flex ticket adding an extra £13.30 each way. It is quite a mark up on an already expensive £127 return fare if using Finsbury Park or seemingly any zone 2 to 6 London station as a starting point.

So Super Off Peak is a guaranteed £127 return. I put in 2 advances Kings Cross to Edinburgh for next week, came back as £155.45 and with the 70 minute flex, goes up to a whopping £182.10 for much less flexibility! Many trains supposedly 'sold out', and very few advances were cheaper than £63.50, many considerably more.

The government needs to end this 'trial' as it is confusing and clearly a deliberate rip off, a massive con. London (Project Oval) and Scotland (Removal of Peak Fares) seem to be the only places actually simplifying fares to the benefit of passengers.

I believe another comment on the article said it well in saying 'this is not public transport, this is a deterrent' to people just trying to go about their lives! A government serious about climate change would be doing the opposite to what LNER is doing for sure!

I'm jealous of countries like Austria with their Klimaticket if I'm honest.

 

[swt_passenger]

Article from 3 August, thanks for the pointer.

I must have missed it myself; I have a subscription.

You can’t use the interactive stuff from the PDF of course; Manchester Piccadilly to London is not unique in being cheaper 2 days a week with a season ticket than daily return tickets, but from places more traditionally thought of as London commuter land it’s true that travel needs to be for 4 days a week to make a season ticket worth it.

Places like Southampton, Winchester and Portsmouth to Waterloo are still bargains at around two Anytime fares. Is that still normal commuter land, it always seems to be when using peak trains.

 

[Watershed]

Places like Southampton, Winchester and Portsmouth to Waterloo are still bargains at around two Anytime fares. Is that still normal commuter land, it always seems to be when using peak trains.

I would hardly say they are bargains. It is still £7500 a year for Southampton to London, for example - which is a hell of a lot of money to spend on travel.

It costs around half of that, if not less, for an annual season ticket covering virtually all public transport in Germany, Switzerland, Austria and most other sensible countries.

 

[swt_passenger]

I would hardly say they are bargains. It is still £7500 a year for Southampton to London, for example - which is a hell of a lot of money to spend on travel.

It costs around half of that, if not less, for an annual season ticket covering virtually all public transport in Germany, Switzerland, Austria and most other sensible countries.

You’re right but via DFT those fares are probably subsidising some minor branch line in the north, and have been for years…

 

[JamesT]

I would hardly say they are bargains. It is still £7500 a year for Southampton to London, for example - which is a hell of a lot of money to spend on travel.

It costs around half of that, if not less, for an annual season ticket covering virtually all public transport in Germany, Switzerland, Austria and most other sensible countries.

Where "sensible" means a greater proportion of the cost of the railways is paid for by the taxpayer instead of the passenger. Good luck trying to persuade the Treasury or the general voting public to change course with that.

 

[MrJeeves]

Also to add to the point. The Finsbury Park Super Off Peak workaround is still available, capped at £63.50 single for a trip to Edinburgh if using a railcard.

For a few more weeks, until it becomes the East Croydon Super Off-Peak workaround!

 

[setdown]

Places like Southampton, Winchester and Portsmouth to Waterloo are still bargains at around two Anytime fares. Is that still normal commuter land, it always seems to be when using peak trains.

I think that's less the season ticket being a bargain, and the Anytime returns in that area being unfathomably extortionate. These are not premier InterCity-style services/trains.

 

[aron2smith]

For a few more weeks, until it becomes the East Croydon Super Off-Peak workaround!

Yeah wouldn't surprise me. I bet the coaches and airlines are loving it!

 

[Bletchleyite]

For a few more weeks, until it becomes the East Croydon Super Off-Peak workaround!

I'm really not sure why they don't just run a batch job to update it for all fares to Edinburgh etc routed +LONDON or +ANY PERMITTED. It really does show a lack of competence that they are just playing whack-a-mole.

They can't prevent savings by way of splits, but they could easily catch all these "buying long" examples where a break of journey restriction wouldn't be enforceable even if there was one.