Have train ticket prices gone up early?

rpb

The train timetables changed yesterday, 10 Dec 2023, and I just noticed that the price for my off-peak tickets into London has just jumped by a pound on South Western Railway (and I now have to get one train later in order to get the off-peak price).

I thought ticket prices were supposed to go up in January.  Have SWR sneaked in some price rises early, along with the new timetables?  Or did I miss some other announcement?  Anyone know?

martindow

Has your usual train changed its time slightly?  A lot of off peak fares are determined by the London arrival times.  If it now reaches Waterloo a few minutes earlier you may have to get the next train as you describe.

MSE_James

It's to do with preparations for extending contactless payment to more stations just outside London - they are attempting to harmonise the prices and rules for paper/e-tickets and contactless pay-as-you-go so that there aren't huge discrepancies depending on how you pay

https://www.southwesternrailway.com/train-tickets/smart-ticketing/changes-to-peak-times-and-tickets-on-some-routes  

There are both winners and losers from the changes

rpb

Ah, thanks.  @martindow: it's not due to the change of time, although that has occurred as well.  Return tickets on the peak time trains have gone up 10p, but they also extend half an hour later (because of the changes by a few minutes you mentioned).  The subsequent off-peak price have gone up £1.  :-(  We have Tap2Go at our station at present, but we are outside the Oyster/contactless zone.  Thanks for the "harmonisation" info, @MSE_James.  We were hoping prices would be coming *down* when contactless is eventually extended to our station, but it seems they may instead be going to go up even more!