Plan for Staycation Rail Pass Abandoned

[wilbers]

Whilst there’s nothing wrong with Leeds, Halifax and Wakefield I think a tourist exploring the area would want to be a little more imaginative. I could quite happily base myself in a hotel close to a railway station in one of those places and use a regional rover to explore Harrogate, Knaresborough, York, Skipton, Ilkley, Hebden Bridge, Skipton, Settle, Bronte Country, Saltaire etc etc. Unfortunately using that example one regional rover wouldn’t cover the area as it’s divided into North West and North East.

There isn’t any need to travel huge distances from one end of the country to the other. Some people don’t want to keep moving hotels and would prefer to stay in a central base. The last time I did a 7 Day NW Rover I had a whole days exploring the Cumbrian Coast, the Wirral, the coast between Liverpool and Southport, plus historic cities like Chester and Carlisle.

I think there is a case for developing more regional rovers for areas tourists really want to explore and advertising them more.

Skipton so good you think it should be visited twice .

 

[A0]

Whilst there’s nothing wrong with Leeds, Halifax and Wakefield I think a tourist exploring the area would want to be a little more imaginative. I could quite happily base myself in a hotel close to a railway station in one of those places and use a regional rover to explore Harrogate, Knaresborough, York, Skipton, Ilkley, Hebden Bridge, Skipton, Settle, Bronte Country, Saltaire etc etc. Unfortunately using that example one regional rover wouldn’t cover the area as it’s divided into North West and North East.

You mean one like this ? http://www.railrover.org/pages/north-country-rover.html

 

[ChrisC]

You mean one like this ? http://www.railrover.org/pages/north-country-rover.html

I had completely forgotten about that one. It’s not one that I have ever considered, , mainly because in comparison with the 7 Day NW or NE rovers, I’ve always thought it quite highly priced for just 4 days.

 

[sor]

It works the other way round for tourists in South Africa.
Locals get 75% discount on the daily "conservation fee" in National Parks, "because they have already funded the facility by taxation".
Admittedly it's also a way of "levelling up" in that country.

Some UK attractions too. The Eden Project basically gives residents of Devon and Cornwall a cheap season ticket. Not sure how Tiverton is particularly local to St. Austell but there we are.

(and to bring it back to rail terms, there's the Devon and Cornwall railcard that is also available to any resident without an age or other requirement, though if you're eligible for the national ones why not get that)

 

[Tetchytyke]

Unsurprisingly perhaps, given ticketing options this was done by car, however is it really so outlandish that someone might want to book in a few destinations elsewhere in the country ? As others have mentioned, the Swiss don't seem to think so.

I don’t understand why it is thought that foreign tourists will stop off in a few different places to explore, but domestic tourists will want to stay in the same place for the whole time.

It’s worth noting that BritRail comes in a flexipass too, whereas the ALR doesn’t, and there’s no good reason why the ALR couldn’t be a flexipass.

 

[yorksrob]

How much is a return from York to Scarborough ? Not much, and certainly little enough that if anyone decided on the spur of the moment to head that way they could.

On the Cotswolds - one of these for £10.50 / adult a day would be far more practical https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/tickets-railcards-offers/promotions/cotswolds-one-day-discoverer/



Very few do - if you're doing a journey such as Kent to Dundee which is about a 9 hour journey (using Canterbury as the start point), then most motorists will plan a fairly direct route with a couple of stops along the way to break the journey up, but those breaks will be fairly close to the journey and may include an overnight stop and are probably no more than 1 hour away from the route being taken. You're not suddenly going to pivot and make the journey via Chepstow and Worthing for example.

I think you've missed the point. Whatever a return from York to Scarborough is (it won't be that cheap - it's TPE afterall) your holidaymaker will already have had to have bought an expensive flexible return.

If we have the all line rover, why not have a flexi-version that's useful to holiday makers.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 30 Mar 2023 ==

I don’t understand why it is thought that foreign tourists will stop off in a few different places to explore, but domestic tourists will want to stay in the same place for the whole time.

It’s worth noting that BritRail comes in a flexipass too, whereas the ALR doesn’t, and there’s no good reason why the ALR couldn’t be a flexipass.

Indeed. If you consider the Britrail pass for foreign tourists, the foreign versions for domestic tourists, the ALR, there's really no logical reason not to have a flex version to suit UK tourists.

As with every thing else with our rail system, such innovations are kept out to protect our overpriced fares system. That's what it all boils down to.

 

[JonathanH]

I don’t understand why it is thought that foreign tourists will stop off in a few different places to explore, but domestic tourists will want to stay in the same place for the whole time.

Foreign tourists might visit the UK once. Domestic tourists can visit places in the UK whenever they like.

 

[urbophile]

Ultimately anything that offers unlimited rail travel over a wide area can't be priced at a viable level on the UK rail network, because it has to be set in such a way that doesn't cannibalise existing revenue.


Offering fares at an accessible level for out and back journeys, and offering rovers on a regional basis, fits with what most people want from rail journeys, and what can be priced reasonably.

Promoting the existing rovers and getting people to explore a particular area is far more viable than freedom of the whole network.

But that is implying that few people would take up the option of an all-line ticket anyway. So how would it be a commercial disaster?

 

[Sm5]

Foreign tourists might visit the UK once. Domestic tourists can visit places in the UK whenever they like.

This is probably it.

To most british people, outside the hobby, the thought of travelling a whole week by train around the UK fills them with horror.

its one thing travelling around the Cote D’Azur looking at golden beaches, followed by a day in provence, then a trip to Bordeaux and finishing it off in Flanders in July…

its totally another riding a urine soaked 156 around Barrow, a graffiti ridden slashed seat 158 around Manchester, then a rain water leaking 150/2 around Cardiff and them finishing the week standing for 2 hours on a GWR service to London.

Dont forget its not just the travel cost being uncompetitive in the UK, the hotel costs are higher, the standards lower, the weather is variable, the food is marginal… Britain lends itself to a hardy domestic few for British vacations, Covid was probably the most painful holiday many British families had to endure, and now they are free to leave once again, many will..which is why air travel bounced back so fast…. making the urge for a staycation recede back to the “nice weather lets head out for the weekend” crowd….

Which of course opens the oppourtunity to weekend rover tickets.. rather than full week tickets… people can put up with that if the weathers good.

 

[yorksrob]

This is probably it.

To most british people, outside the hobby, the thought of travelling a whole week by train around the UK fills them with horror.

its one thing travelling around the Cote D’Azur looking at golden beaches, followed by a day in provence, then a trip to Bordeaux and finishing it off in Flanders in July…

its totally another riding a urine soaked 156 around Barrow, a graffiti ridden slashed seat 158 around Manchester, then a rain water leaking 150/2 around Cardiff and them finishing the week standing for 2 hours on a GWR service to London.

Dont forget its not just the travel cost being uncompetitive in the UK, the hotel costs are higher, the standards lower, the weather is variable, the food is marginal… Britain lends itself to a hardy domestic few for British vacations, Covid was probably the most painful holiday many British families had to endure, and now they are free to leave once again, many will..which is why air travel bounced back so fast…. making the urge for a staycation recede back to the “nice weather lets head out for the weekend” crowd….

Which of course opens the oppourtunity to weekend rover tickets.. rather than full week tickets… people can put up with that if the weathers good.

This is a stereotypical view that reinforces the decision not to offer a decent round Britain ticket. There were people who holidayed in Britain before covid and there are afterwards


The reality is that the industry can't bring itself to provide a good value ticket that gives people the choice of where and when they want to travel.
If there are so few people who would ever consider a week or two explo