Chiltern Railways Further Price Increase!

rfctabs

Hi All,

Has anyone else spotted that Chiltern Railways have increased some fares again with the introduction of their summer timetable? Have any other operators raised fares again recently?

In December, a peak anytime return from my local station in the Midlands (Dorridge) was £75. In January it went up to £85. Now, it's £95!!! That's a total of 26.7% in effectively four months. They're still quite a bit cheaper than Virgin from Birmingham International to Euston, but then Virgin gets to Euston in about an hour and a quarter compared to Chiltern taking about an hour and a half to Marylebone.

I thought rises were capped and could only happen once per year. Clearly not since we've now seen two rises in four months.

I must say, I'm a bit miffed...

:mad:

Jeff_Bridges_hair

Oh well. I take it you didnt get any of the 50p returns brum - lon that were on offer then.

GoPD

Our local fairs on London Midland did increase recently I believe.

I've always liked the Chiltern Birmingham to Marylebone service as it always seems to run to timetable and the trains are well kept and clean.

I know part of the problems are with congestion but it seems whenever I get the Virgin service there is some issue or delay, plus I find the carriages on the Virgin trains less pleasant some how, I think its a combination of the 'climate control and the plastic surroundings on them.

But I do tend to travel off peak though even those fairs have increased.

rfctabs

Jeff_Bridges_hair wrote: »

Oh well. I take it you didnt get any of the 50p returns brum - lon that were on offer then.

I don't think they're on offer for an anytime return on the 06:35!

dzug1

rfctabs wrote: »

Hi All,

Has anyone else spotted that Chiltern Railways have increased some fares again with the introduction of their summer timetable? Have any other operators raised fares again recently?

In December, a peak anytime return from my local station in the Midlands (Dorridge) was £75. In January it went up to £85. Now, it's £95!!! That's a total of 26.7% in effectively four months. They're still quite a bit cheaper than Virgin from Birmingham International to Euston, but then Virgin gets to Euston in about an hour and a quarter compared to Chiltern taking about an hour and a half to Marylebone.

I thought rises were capped and could only happen once per year. Clearly not since we've now seen two rises in four months.

I must say, I'm a bit miffed...

:mad:

Capping only applies to season tickets and some off peak fares

And other companies have increased fares and/or intoduced longer peak hours

rfctabs

Ah well, it is what it is and I'll be making fewer trips to London in future, but somehow I don't think my change in travel habits will make much of a dent in their revenues.

This is probably simple supply and demand - the price will go up until demand falls. However, as the business train travel market is pretty inelastic I can't see price increases tailing off any time soon.

(At the risk of hijacking my own thread, I must say that this logic doesn't seem to apply to the M6 Toll, however, where low use of the road (http://www.m6toll.co.uk/about-us/traffic-figures/latest-reports/25-04-2012-quarterly-report/) leads to price increases. I wonder what would happen if they lowered tolls instead?)