Single, Return, Off Peak Day Return Pricing

[aavm]

Once upon a time, if a peak single was £10, a peak return would be £20, and an after 9:30 cheap day return £10.10
Now it seems (in the south east) that an off-peak return is only a little cheaper than a peak return in many cases.
Have off-peak day returns gone up by that much?
But contactless seems to be changing that, the price difference between peak and off-peak seems to be returning, or is that just the fares I've looked at recently?

 

[Bletchleyite]

Once upon a time, if a peak single was £10, a peak return would be £20, and an after 9:30 cheap day return £10.10
Now it seems (in the south east) that an off-peak return is only a little cheaper than a peak return in many cases.
Have off-peak day returns gone up by that much?
But contactless seems to be changing that, the price difference between peak and off-peak seems to be returning, or is that just the fares I've looked at recently?

In the Project Oval area single fare pricing has been introduced, which makes day returns twice the relevant single. This is the general trend. It renders period returns pointless as you can just buy two singles, thus making period return journeys a lot cheaper.

However, unlike LNER, it wasn't done with big increases, it was generally just done by halving the returns (and in some cases getting rid of super-off-peak and reducing the off-peak because TfL contactless can only handle a two step structure).

 

[Watershed]

What journeys are you looking at?

The difference between peak and off-peak fares can vary from "basically nothing" to over 3x.

The ratio between peak and off-peak fares has changed over time, with many operators increasing commuter peak fares by the maximum amount they were allowed to under the "fares basket" system that was in operation until around 2015. Off-Peak fares were often frozen, and some operators introduced even cheaper Super Off-Peak fares, to counterbalance this and ensure the overall increase in revenue wasn't above the permitted maximum (usually RPI plus or minus a certain amount, depending which way the political winds of the day were blowing).

More recently, the only major change to off-peak tickets since around 2019 has been the rollout of Project Oval. This seeks to bring contactless PAYG payments to a wider number of stations around the southeast, which are outside the London Zones but within 'commuter belt' territory. In so doing, single leg pricing (whereby singles cost half of a return) has been introduced and paper fares have been aligned with the new PAYG structure.

This has generally involved adding evening peak restrictions to Off-Peak fares which generally didn't have them, but reducing them to compensate. Super Off-Peak fares have been scrapped (leading to price increases, especially at weekends), however the end result is still that there is a notable difference between peak and off-peak fares.

 

[Bletchleyite]

This has generally involved adding evening peak restrictions to Off-Peak fares which generally didn't have them, but reducing them to compensate. Super Off-Peak fares have been scrapped (leading to price increases, especially at weekends), however the end result is still that there is a notable difference between peak and off-peak fares.

It's notable that on WMT this was just going back to the structure that existed before the London Midland franchise, and roughly the fare levels too (adjusted for general increases).