Ticketing system led by passenger behaviour

[Nicholas43]

Sir Peter Hendy has interesting thoughts about making the Big Railway more like the tube.

... happy Customer Service Assistants, at Oxford Circus and
Victoria and all over the Tube, are making people’s day better by making the service run well
and making the passengers happy too.
And on the tube, where did many of them come from? They came out of the dullest
customer service job, selling tickets from behind a glass wall. And now they are out in the
open having fun, interacting with the customers, and making the service work.
This was enabled by a ticketing system the customers didn’t need human help to use.
Contactless ticketing, and automatic refunds so customers trust the system with the sales
staff moved onto gate lines and platforms to help everyone including those with disabilities
board the trains and get on their way.
Wouldn’t that be a radical change for the big railway?
...
We need to think what this means for our customers. They’re clever people. Increasingly
they will measure their journey not by timetable adherence but by regularity – average wait –
and by journey length and by these in total.
When Bristol Temple Meads and Bristol Parkway both become 15 minute services, will
people look at a timetable? Unlikely. These services will be more frequent that the outer end
of the Metropolitan Line!
The ticketing implications are major, but as I’ve said, reform is overdue anyway in my view. The ticketing system should be led by passenger behaviour, not act as a constraint to it.

(from his George Bradshaw address, 2018):
https://cdn.networkrail.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Sir-Peter-Hendy-George-Bradshaw-Address.pdf
The implication (possibly?) is touching in and out for every leg, in standard or first class as the case might be. I presume you'd then pay a tiered price for each leg according to day and actual (not as-booked-in-working-timetable) time. Maybe more than 2 tiers, but I hope not the 27 tiers you typically get for lots of journeys now. I don't know if Sir Peter would favour a discount for multiple legs. Discounts for young/old/disabled/pairs/groups could presumably still apply. In principle, could be revenue-neutral; but there would probably be egregious winners and losers for specific journeys. And dozens of highly-paid pricing managers could be moved to the platforms ...

 

[bb21]

Sir Peter is absolutely right in the bold part you highlighted.

Nevertheless 4 trains an hour is not Metro standard, which is what turn-up-and-go is. The majority will still have a bold idea whenabout trains are. A small proportion unaware of the frequency level would turn up and hope for the best. It is currently debatable whether 6 trains an hour or 8 trains an hour on an even headway should be used as a benchmark (I believe the DfT favourite is the latter). Sometimes in common usage it is stretched to 5 trains/buses an hour but that is about it. People in Chesham (as implied) definitely do not simply turn up and go when the service is 2 trains an hour.

TfL are the only provider where it is stated in a timetable displayed at the point of use services turn up "every 9-14 minutes" or such like. While I can understand the rationale of this behind a bus operation heavily impacted by city centre congestion, on the railway this is not an acceptable level of information provision imo.