Rail Tickets Price Discrepancy Hunt

dzug

AP wrote: »

1. They do not have a choice to travel outside the peak hours

2. I am quite happy for the morning peak fare to be higher than the off-peak fare, as long as it is the same in both directions. QUOTE]

1 They have a choice of employment. If the fare goes high enough they will look elsewhere.

2. But (in the London area anyway) the morning peak is uni-directional. So you want the counter-flow fares increased in price?

MarkyMarkD

AP

Your view of what is unfair doesn't make sense, for the reasons expressed by others already. Most peak service demand is uni-directional - mainly into major cities and away from suburbia/rural areas. So it makes sense for prices to reflect that.

You claim that making the inbound leg more expensive than the outbound doesn't free up space on the trains. But of course it does - it deters non-essential travellers from travelling.

moonrakerz

AP wrote: »

Let me just clarify a few points here:

1. I do not think that by letting everyone get the early morning train the result will be lower fares. All I am saying is by charging a higher Standard Day Return fare for morning trains into London is not going to solve the overcrowding problem, as people have to go to work at that time of the day if the company they work for does not have a flexible-hour working pattern. They do not have a choice to travel outside the peak hours.

I agree, charging a higher Standard Day return fare for morning trains will not solve the overcrowding, BUT it will prevent (to some extent) it being worse. The main point is not that they are not charging a higher fare at peak times - they are offering a reduced fare at off peak times.

AP wrote: »

L

2. I am quite happy for the morning peak fare to be higher than the off-peak fare, as long as it is the same in both directions. The example journeys that I quoted in my earlier post all (except Sheffield to Hull) have a Cheap Day Return ticket at a lower fare for travel outside peak hours. The Standard Day Return ticket is already a higher fare for travel during peak hours with which I have no problem. What I am not happy with is the even 'higher' Standard Day Return fare for travelling in one direction than the same Standard Day Return fare for travelling in the opposite direction between exactly the same two places. This is what I mean by 'unfair practice' in the first place.

You seem to think that "peak" and "off peak" are fixed times on all routes - they are not.
Peak time from, say, Reading to Paddington could be from 07:00 to 09:30; this same time from Paddington to Reading is most definitely off peak. This is why the fares are different between two points, travelling in different directions and at different times.

It may not make sense at first glance, but there are some bargains to be got.
Last year my daughter wanted to spend the whole day in London. The cheapest ticket from our nearest station to Paddington was over £60, from another station (just 5 miles further away on a different line into Paddington (and at the same time 08:30) cost her £22 ! She was happy with the deal she got, not complaining that both fares should have been £22 !

AP

Can we have the opinions of either Barry Doe or Alex Nelson, the consultants of rail travel, on this issue please?

At the end of the day, I do not live anywhere near London. If commuters from the London area are happy with this price discrepancy in rail ticketing, i.e. charging a higher fare for the same return journey from A to B than one from B to A, it is not up to me to tell them otherwise as it is not my money that is going to be spent on these 'extra' train fares.

Perhaps the Office of Fair Trading might want to have a look at this issue and consider if they are happy with such practice from the train operating companies.

MarkyMarkD

At the end of the day, AP, it doesn't matter in the slightest if you are happy with what you consider a price discrepancy. It's pricing based on supply/demand in both cases, and there's nothing wrong with it.

Roland

The National Rail Conditions of Carriage are quite clear on this subject.

In section 17 it states that the outward portion of a ticket is only valid if the ticket is unused. Therefore the reverse usage of a return ticket is not allowed.

The PDF document with the full conditions can be found on the link below at the bottom of the central column.

http://nationalrail.co.uk/times_fares/nrcc/