Fares and Restrictions Revision 18th May.

ticketcollector

Warning Long Posting
As of the 18th May a lot of TOCs will be 'adjusting' fares. Some such as XC and EMT will be changing some rules on tickets and withdrawing some other tickets.

A lot of Saver Returns priced by Cross Country (Ex Central Trains) will be abolished and changed to Day Returns.
Also the old rule where you could travel on a saver at any time with a railcard has now been abolished on Cross Country Trains.

The Quotes below are direct quotes from relevant internal documentation.

London Midland Fares Review – May 2008
Please find below details of pricing/ticketing changes that will take effect from 18 May 2008.
There will be no blanket fares increases applicable to London Midland fares.

Fares from Stratford upon Avon to stations on the Dorridge line were originally priced for travel via Tyseley and hence in some cases were cheaper than the equivalent fares to Birmingham. As more frequent journeys are available via Birmingham and as an increasing number of customers were using such fares to travel to Birmingham these journeys have been re-priced slightly higher than the Birmingham fares to eradicate this problem.

Fares for journeys from Widney Manor to stations beyond Birmingham were cheaper in some cases than to Birmingham. These anomalies have all been corrected from 18 May 2008

The Watford North/Garston/Bricket Wood/How Wood to London Euston SDR fares were cheaper than from Watford Junction. Corrections have been made to these fares and to make the Abbey Line fares to London Euston more consistent.

First Capital Connect Fares Review – May 2008
Please find below details of pricing/ticketing changes that will take effect from 18 May 2008.

The routing of tickets from March to London will change from ‘FCC Only’ to ‘route Cambridge’. Some Passengers were attempting to use these tickets via Peterborough and the new routing change should make it simpler for them.

From 18 May 2008 GroupSave will not be available with Saver tickets on any East Midlands Trains journey.
4-Sight has been withdrawn and will not be available for sale after 18 May 2008.

From 18 May, there will be important changes to the CrossCountry fares structure. These changes include:

• Delivering a simpler, more transparent and fairer system for advanced travel through a structure based on up to five levels of ticket, with many fares significantly cheaper than their current equivalent.
• Providing clarity for customers, employees and retailers on when walk-up tickets can be used, by removing 13 different restrictions for Cheap Day tickets and eight restrictions for Savers.
• Aligning fare conditions with those used by other TOCs by adopting standard time restrictions for Saver and Cheap Day tickets.
  
• Reducing opportunities for the misuse of return ticket portions on most short distance flows. Monthly return tickets for short distance journeys have produced problems for revenue protection and are replaced by day issue tickets of similar prices.
• Implementing the same First Class season ticket multiplier as other Intercity TOCs to remove anomalies, and introducing a new First Saver Return on most flows to generate off-peak travel.
• Prices of Group travel products and the Weekend Upgrade have remained unaltered.
  
• Please also note that Saver Half tickets have been withdrawn on all CrossCountry priced flows, except flows in the North West, which should be priced by Virgin (West Coast). Finally the railcard exemption from Saver restrictions no longer applies to any CrossCountry priced flow or journey. Customers holding railcards will have the Saver restriction applied to their journey and therefore can no longer travel during periods when Saver tickets are not valid for travel.
  
• From May 2008, period return fares have been removed from most flows with a distance of less than 50 miles, to prevent repeated use of tickets. Where no Standard Day Return fare previously existed, as the Saver fare was
  unrestricted we have introduced an Standard Day Return fare at the same rate as the Saver, and have also introduced Cheap Day Return fares where these did not previously exist.