Well this is where i stick up for GC.
Having gone to book tickets for a month in advance (just to compare), I end up with comparable timings both ways on train times close to each other (although admittedly GC have some horrible paths), and unless I want to be stuck onto a specific train, and book in advance (in which case i save myself £27), then GC are much much cheaper. Amazingly so.
Fares are so high on this route (that's down to DfT policy) that I now consider it to be like an airline, ie I must book in advance to be able to afford it. And I include GC in that.
So you say EC are cheaper if you split tickets? I wouldnt know this, but at least GCs fares are easy to understand.
I think that almost anyone in the UK who has travelled on a train or read a major newspaper knows about 'split tickets' now.
GC's fares are not that easy to understand, especially when their definition of "Off Peak" is the complete opposite to that as defined by East Coast for the Any Permitted tickets.
"Welcome on board this Grand Central Train, Off Peak tickets routed Grand central only are not valid, despite the fact this is an off peak train and operated by Grand Central. This is extremely simple and anyone holding an Off Peak ticket routed Any Permitted is valid." Of course they won't quite word it like that on their announcements as they don't want to admit to the absurdity of it.
According to ATOC, the name "Off Peak" describes when you can travel. Does that make any sense when looking at the York to London GC and Any Permitted Off Peak fares? Nope, it makes no sense at all. GC can claim innocence but they must be aware of the situation and if you can't change the rail industry, you have to fit in with it. Their fares have been a farce from day one, and continue to be, despite many changes.
It's not difficult. Football fans know about it and do it all the time.
Anyway GC are not immune from it being cheaper to split the journey into a combination of tickets. Everyone who travels regularly between York & Sunderland knows it's cheaper to split at Hartlepool!
Fares on the railways are far too complicated, but open access operators like GC, and the much missed WSMR, changed this.
No, they didn't, they can't change it.
So basically what you are saying, is that for the minority of passengers (those that know to split tickets, and those that book over a month in advance) it is cheaper with EC, but for the majority of passengers it is cheaper with GC.
No, the majority of customers travelling between London and Yorkshire book in advance, and therefore EC is considerably cheaper.
It will just take time for the service/ reliability to settle, and for passengers to become fully happy with GC. Its happened on the Sunderland route, and ive no doubt it will on the Bradford route. Lets hope they are happy for the Sunderland route to subsidise the Bradford route until this happens. If they persevere like they did with the Sunderland route then things can surely only get better and better.
The Sunderland route was always going to be much more viable than the Bradford route to be honest.
I am extremely dissapointed their application for Blackpool service was turned down though. Very very poor decision.
I think it's a poor decision as open access operators should be allowed to flourish.
However open access operators that have ludicrous pricing policies need to re-consider their position, or they will continue to run trains that are less than 10% loaded at times of less demand (when your choice is £10 with EC or £40+ with GC) while being overloaded at busy times. With GC you know some trains will be empty and some will be wedged, because there is no yield management. (And no, having one train at a decent price on Mobitix (which rips people off on the West Riding route at the moment) is not effective yield management).
