yorkie: What would those rates be for journeys such as Sherburn-in-Elmet to Whitby (an Off Peak Day Return is currently £23.30 for 99 miles each way)
More expensive than now. Sherburn to Whitby is too far (by what's left of the railway) to be competitive. But there would be an attractive ticket via Scarborough, including the bus from Scarborough to Whitby.
Reading to Paddington (£28.00 for 36 miles each way)
More or less what it is now, and it would continue to be contactless.
and Poppleton to Dore & Totley (£24.00 for 54+ miles each way via Pontefract ...
About the same as it is now.
...or up to 79 miles each way via Leeds
The same, because I would expect via Leeds to be accepted as a reasonable route.
Would it be permitted to travel via longer routes, thus creating anomalies,
It would be permitted to travel by
reasonable routes longer than the fare-determining shortest route. And the railway would have to live with some resulting anomalies, such as ingenious stopping short on a longer route.
or would you introduce complexity of route specific fares?
No.
At present, on many long distance TOCs, there is a surcharge to travel on quiet trains; I'm not sure what you are saying here, but I think you are saying that Anytime fares be abolished and all travel is considered Off Peak?
I mean that there would be one fare from one station to any other, and the anomaly-ridden distinction between peak and off-peak would be abolished.
If so, I would be happy with the principle, but would enough taxpayers support the reduction in revenue
I am suggesting that the charge per 'fare mile' could be set such that a significant reduction in revenue would not happen. I would not expect (but I could be wrong) that this would result in significant numbers of leisure travellers joined standing commuters on a packed train from (say) Luton to St Pancras. From Oxford to Paddington (for example) there are currently absurd anomalies, such that it is expensive to travel on some lightly-loaded trains from Oxford to Paddington before 8 am on a weekday, but cheap to travel on a full-and-standing train from Oxford to Paddington on a Sunday afternoon.
and necessary increase in capacity required on commuter services at busy times?
An increase in capacity on some commuter services would be desirable, but is off-topic.
This [giving travellers a three-word code] doesn't sound a good idea; how would this work?
I have in mind elderly relatives (and soon me) who struggle to input an 8-character collection-code correctly into a ticket machine. I think I would find it easier to remember a three-word meaningless phrase (on the precedent of the three-word phrases that now denote each 3-metre square of the earth's surface).
How big do groups need to be
2 or more.
how big would the discount be?
Set such that train appears not wildly expensive when compared with car-dependence.
Presumably the aim is to make rail attractive to hen parties, groups of football supporters travelling to football games, that sort of thing,
Well, the main aim would be getting friends and families to choose the train. But hen parties would be welcome, especially if they can be booked into their own sound-proof carriage
which can cause huge swings in demand.
Off topic, I find it sad that the modern railway cannot provide the football specials that ran in the 1950s.
A 50% supplement to travel 1st would be a loss of revenue to TOCs such as LNER; where is the money coming from to cover the shortfall in revenue?
50% was a guess. Possibly more than 50% on trains where you get a comfortable window seat, and less than 50% when you just get an anti-macassar. But (I think) charge for food and drink.
What about people who board at unstaffed stations? Is there a risk that people will make up three words to try to avoid this?
The three words generated by the ticket-seller would encode for a ticket for a paid-for journey; and could be acquired on the train by people who board at unstaffed stations.
Presumably it's reasonable to travel from York to Oxford via London
I don't know. It's reasonable
now, because Voyagers are so awful. But I think I would expect via Derby to be the reasonable route, and via London to require two tickets, plus whatever sensible solution can be found for cross-London (such as use contactless on the Underground or bus; or a taxi, or a bicycle, or walk, at your choice).
London to Twyford via Reading
About the same as now, and would remain contactless.
Apart from the absence of modern technology and a few other items, the suggestion is very similar to how things used to be up to the early 1960s.
Yes; my memories (actually of the 1950s) are what inspired my suggestions.
