Whats the evidence that customers want one brand, and how will one brand make it simpler for passengers?
It's simpler if there is simpler ticketing, i.e. your ticket from London to Wolverhampton means you can get on any train not only LNR/WMR.
Train nerds love different names, colours, ticket types.
It's not to do with train nerds. It's to do with what branding approaches will commercially attract the most customers and so increase income. As with any other business, surely that should be the overriding principle?
Before 1948 there were four main companies sporting multiple liveries between them. That didn’t stop ticketing being simple. It's perfectly possible to include different brands and regional identities without inventing lots of silly ticket restrictions (ORCATS-dodges).
A mixture of very different brand propositions just confuses the h**l out of people. They buy a TPE only ticket, travel on Avanti, get fined and vow to travel by car next time.
That's got nothing to do with the branding. That's purely down to the stupid ticketing.
If GWR-only tickets are cheaper than all-operator ones, who wants to only have the choice of the more expensive ticket?
In almost all cases TOC-specific tickets offer a pretty small saving. Small enough that for twenty passengers having saved £1 each another passenger has just been stung for £20 for a new ticket because they boarded the wrong train. The public aren't winning with these.
So you think that passengers who go to the effort of checking ticket restrictions should pay more for the sake of those who don't bother to do so? Why should we?
You think the public want the kind of simple that stops them choosing to go a bit slower for a big saving?
Would they?
It’s called a “TPE only“ ticket - couldn’t be much simpler. To help those who can’t understand this simple concept (or pretend they can’t when they get caught) you want to make those who can pay more.
But brands insulate the good services from the bad. Its hard to sell an expensive ticket for leisure travel to people who associate that brand with their frequently delayed/cancelled commute.
If TOC specific tickets are used to push demand on to trains with capacity then those on the crowded trains are winning.
I think most of the “winners” won’t actually travel much (if at all) , whilst the losers will be losing often (if they keep using the trains when the prices go up).
I'd sooner have a system that actually works for the majority rather than helping out the canny. If that means that everyone asking for a return from Runcorn to Liverpool Lime Street is charged £8.80 (to use any train) rather than £8.70 (but must make sure that the train they return on is an Avanti one) or £8.60 (but must return with TfW) then so be it.
Do you really think that the TOC-specific tickets between Manchester Airport and Manchester Piccadilly (a journey within a single metro area for heaven's sake) achieve any such goal?
So who is the winner if TOC-specific tickets are lost and the effect is that fares rise to to the Any Operator price?
You do realise that British people use them to/from the airport?
This is probably the kind of person who paid over the odds for their energy for past 30 years because they've stuck with British Gas, whilst the rest of us saved lots of money from switching. Was their inertia a reason for choice not to be available to the rest of us?
There is a difference though, isn’t there. There is always a choice of gas suppliers. There is also a heavily advertised range of services to aid those who wish to explore switching. Do you do a tour of half a dozen stores when you go shopping to save a couple of quid? Or do you buy everything in one place because it’s easier? Ever noticed how things cost more in little convenience store-sized branches of Tesco than in the supermarkets? Etc. People also value ease and convenience, and are happy not to faff for the sake of saving the price of a cup of coffee or two.
But they also want devolved government and services, and to distinguish "here" from "there" (or "us" from "them").
I'm not talking about rail enthusiasts. I'm talking about the very large number of people who buy their rail tickets from apps and websites these days, usually setting out which is the cheapest from the types of combinations you highlight. No, they're not perfect in showing all the options available, but they do show the key choices of tickets for the journeys selected. One only has to sit on a train whilst tickets are being checked and hear the large number of beeps to know that those who rely on TVMs and their limited information are an increasingly small minority.
The ones who I'm charging £20+ because they asked Trainline for an "open return", Trainline showed an Avanti outward service that was a couple of quid cheaper, and they just assumed that they could get any train back? That'll be a new single ticket, please...
It is indeed the case that many people using various apps have little or no understanding of what it is that they’ve been sold.
The apps don't help. "Trainline said that it was an open return". And indeed the words "open return" appear (misleadingly) on the email confirmation. What the passenger missed was that the price they selected was under the "return same day" list and their ticket is split into two portions, one of which is a Day Return.
Quite probably if the algorithms push people to the cheaper ticket
Or a ticket at the off-peak fare, despite that being regulated.
But there will only be one operator -GBR - so any cheap ticket specific to a random subset of the trains operating between those two points will be the same company undercutting itself!
