Leeds to Doncaster

[tom73]

Advance single for 5th November
£2 on Northern, £7.10 on LNER.
Would such a variation have applied in British Rail days?

 

[ForTheLoveOf]

Advance single for 5th November
£2 on Northern, £7.10 on LNER.
Would such a variation have applied in British Rail days?

Apex tickets were not available for such relatively short journeys in BR days, and neither were they this cheap. Ordinary walk-up tickets would have been a more reasonable price, such that there would be no reason to want Apex tickets for this kind of journey.

But pricing differentials very much did exist between routes seen as better served and worse served - with those which saw new stock and an increase in service frequency (e.g. Great Western main line) seeing an increase in fares (which is why even the regulated Reading-London SVR is an absurd £28.30, for a return journey taking from just 26 minutes!). Equally, fares along routes that were poorly served, e.g. the Heart of Wales line, were set at a much lower level.

In many ways this differential pricing still exists today, e.g. with 'via Llandovery', 'via Hereford' etc. fares undercutting the Any Permitted substantially for some journeys, as well as having more lenient peak restrictions, if any.

But in terms of differential for an Advance ticket I don't think there is anything you can compare this to. I don't think that it's particularly unfair to charge a significantly higher fare for the LNER service, as the stock is likely to be significantly more comfortable, you are guaranteed a seat (which you are not on Northern, as the Advances use 'counted place' quotas), and you are taking what could be the seat of someone who might be travelling a much longer journey, e.g. Leeds to London. LNER have fewer seats left over for higher revenue passengers such as these so I think it makes sense that they make you pay proportionally more if you really want to travel on their train.

 

[Bantamzen]

Advance single for 5th November
£2 on Northern, £7.10 on LNER.
Would such a variation have applied in British Rail days?

I must admit I did a double take when I saw the Northern off-peak singles offered at £2.00, most journeys within West Yorkshire cost more. But morning / early afternoon Northern Leeds-Doncaster are usually fairly sparsely occupied whereas the LNERs will often ne full or at least close to it. The evening peak Northern services are over twice as expensive, reflecting the direction of flow on those services which can be full to standing.

 

[Silverdale]

Not disagreeing with @ForTheLoveOf at all about why there should be such a differential.

From the passengers' view, surely it's a good thing that Northern can occasionally offer a ride from Leeds to Doncaster for less than the price of a hot drink at the station? You could feed a family of four for the price of the cheapest walk-up single.

 

[Wallsendmag]

You could feed a family of four for the price of the cheapest walk-up single.

Not at a station you couldn't

 

[Silverdale]

No. You certainly couldn't.

 

[Iskra]

Advance single for 5th November
£2 on Northern, £7.10 on LNER.
Would such a variation have applied in British Rail days?

Surely there is a significant journey time penalty on the all shacks stopper compared to the LNER express? That's before you bring rolling stock quality into it...

 

[30907]

Surely there is a significant journey time penalty on the all shacks stopper compared to the LNER express? That's before you bring rolling stock quality into it...

Correct

 

[Puffing Devil]

Against the flow, trains just shipping air, poor reliability, poor rolling stock. Seems reasonable value to me.

Irrespective of the different TOCs argument, I suppose it depends on how you want to price rail services: consistent unit pricing or demand-based pricing. Not many people would demand to be on a Northern Service......

 

[Darandio]

Surely there is a significant journey time penalty on the all shacks stopper compared to the LNER express? That's before you bring rolling stock quality into it...

30 minutes vs 45 minutes on average. I'm sure a £5.10 saving for 15 minutes is worth it for many.

 

[Iskra]

30 minutes vs 45 minutes on average. I'm sure a £5.10 saving for 15 minutes is worth it for many.

That’s a 50% increase, to travel on suburban stock with zero leg room and it feels longer than that on the stopper.

I’ve no doubt it’s worth it for the odd leisure traveller, but I doubt it’s going to be full and standing all of a sudden.

Combined with a cheap Doncaster-London advance though due to more operators competing at Doncaster, it’s a good way of saving a fair bit of money if you’re not in a rush from Leeds to London.

 

[Bantamzen]

That’s a 50% increase, to travel on suburban stock with zero leg room and it feels longer than that on the stopper.

I’ve no doubt it’s worth it for the odd leisure traveller, but I doubt it’s going to be full and standing all of a sudden.

Combined with a cheap Doncaster-London advance though due to more operators competing at Doncaster, it’s a good way of saving a fair bit of money if you’re not in a rush from Leeds to London.

Depending on which service you used, you could easily end up with an entire carriage worth's of leg room for at least most of the journey!! It would be a good way to reduce costs from beyond Doncaster, however you'd almost certainly end up on a LNER service from Leeds anyway as one usually follows just a few minutes after the stopper (or right behind it if the stopper gets delayed).

 

[Moodster020]

Leeds to Doncaster day return child fare in BR days (1992/93) for me was about £5 iirc.

 

[TUC]

Advance single for 5th November
£2 on Northern, £7.10 on LNER.
Would such a variation have applied in British Rail days?

No. Rather good isn't it?