Completely changed train fare structure. How does it affect you?

dzug1

Mr_Gordon wrote: »

I couldn't work out why my regular journey I make seemed to be unavailable on every day I chose. Maybe this is it.

I travel down to Oxford from Glasgow several times a year and am still eligible for a Young Person's Railcard (renamed 16-25 Railcard it would now seem). When Virgin had the cross country franchise I could just buy a through ticket without a problem, now I tend to buy one ticket to Birmingham then get another to Oxford as Virgin allowed you to use your railcard against first class where Cross Country didn't. I'm 6'4 and find the normal seats don't have enough leg room for that length of journey so managing to get the majority of the journey in a bit more comfort was great.

This usually worked out at about £25 each way to Brimingham from Glasgow advance purchase then a standard class saver return (or similar) to Oxford. I'd try to plan about 2-3 months ahead to get this.

Last week I booked my first class ticket using my railcard to Birmingham for £25, but every one for the return leg 12 days later is £146, no matter what time of the day or day of the week I pick.

Virgin's site always seemed to condense the tickets down to flexible and advance anyway, compared with the other operators. I can't see this being much of a step forward.

Have the tickets just not been released yet or is this an end to my reasonably priced journey?

If you only find a full priced fare then chances are that the tickets haven't been released. Particularly at weekends VWC are way behind the other companies at the moment

http://www.atoctravelagents.org/ and follow the booking horizons link - it's been updated today so should be current

EdGasket

My standard daily return fare for a commute from Portsmouth to Fleet has gone up from £17.40 to £18.60 since the 18th May changes. Thats a near 7% increase on a normal daily return. And not only that but it is a 7% increase while the Simpler Ticketing leaflet says there will be NO increase in fares; the ATOC website says there will be NO increase in Fares, and the National Rail websaite says there will be NO increase in fares.
I have emailed ATOC about this; no reply. I have emailed my MP, no reply. I phoned customer service at South-West Trains who admitted that fares have risen by up to 7% but could not explain why this was so when all the information about Simpler Ticketing claims there will be NO increase in fares. The person I spoke to at SW Trains said he would send me a written reply as to why my fare has increased but I have not received this yet. Season tickets have not gone up but unless I travel every working day, these are not economical.
Should I try complaining to trading standards?
I guess if the train companies want to put up fares then they will but its utterly cynical of them to do so while claiming they havn't done it ! I am thouroughly disgusted at this. How can we expect honest and decent behaviour from our youth when the countries major companies tell blatant lies and rip us off?

digitaltoast

Hi there Ed! In case you didn't see my earlier posts...
http://www.digitaltoast.co.uk/simplified-train-fares-ripoff-scam-price-rises
http://www.digitaltoast.co.uk/more-simplified-train-fare-scams-and-lies

Got two more letters today saying the prices HAVE risen after the 18th May and my £12 to £21 jump in price from the 18th is correct. This gives me some pretty solid ground to go on next week - as you can see from the site, I've been a busy bunny and am working up to something big!

Mr_Gordon_2

Another thing I noticed this weekend was my Young Persons return to Glasgow from my local station about 25min away has gone up by 10p to £2.30.

digitaltoast

OK, now here's something to watch out for:

I just checked another fare - it seems (from a bit of checking) that most journeys in the south aren't as messed up and different depending on the booking company, as they are for other routes.

HOWEVER, CrossCountryTrains website is showing DOUBLE the price for every journey I can find. Let's take one example - Reading to Bournemouth, out 11:45 28th June, Back 11:45 3rd July

Same train, same ticket, same fare rules. Scroll down and read below the screenshots.

The difference is that everyone else will charge you £7, booking via CrossCountry will cost you £14.

First, National Rail £7



Virgin Trains £7



the excellent National Express site (REALLY good use of Ajax and a fares matrix on this site, highly recommended!): £7



and finally, CrossCountryTrains - £14!



Now, how is the public supposed to know that?! Is it even legal? I suppose they can charge what they want, but ATOC told me all companies should show the same tickets and prices (excluding any booking fees). Can anyone confirm if this is true?

yorkie2

Can I just point out that the only fares that have been overhauled this month are the ADVANCE fares.

Any other changes are not a result of the overhaul, and we do not know what will happen to the current fares.

Every so often the NFM (National Fares Manual) is re-released, each time this happens the companies can, if they choose, change the fares.

The biggest changes that occured this time around are on XC. XC appear to claim that their changes are in some way related to the overhaul of fares in September. They can say what they like, but the facts are that they chose to introduce draconian increases to the existing fares. Fares that will, in any case, be renamed in September.

It is also worth noting that it is - according to various sources who work in booking offices - just a renaming exercise and that ticket conditions are NOT changing as a result of the new structure. Of course, companies can ALSO change restrictions at the same time as re-naming and abolishing existing tickets, but they could have done that anyway and that is over and above the simplification process.

Simplification is not really about simplification - it's just re-branding.

Did you know, a Saver (to be called "Off Peak" soon - wow!!!) from Newcastle to Leeds is not valid for journey FINISHING at Leeds before 0930. Yet a Saver from Newcastle to York is valid at any time. A Saver from Newcastle to Birmingham is not valid for a journey STARTING before 0930, yet a Saver from Newcastle to Taunton is valid at any time providing you do not depart Newcastle before 0500. Re-naming them "off peak" won't change any of those restrictions.

digitaltoast - thanks for that investigation. I'm looking into it also, and will report back on railforums with my findings!

ClaretHead

I regularly travel from Ipswich to London, in the peak hours, with a normal walk-up and pay ticket. The operator is National Express East Anglia. The standard return including a tube journey was 59 pounds. I went to London on Wednesday this week, asked for the standard return (the 59 pounds one) and it's gone up to 64 pounds - that's an 8.4% rise.

dzug1

digitaltoast wrote: »

Now, how is the public supposed to know that?! Is it even legal? I suppose they can charge what they want, but ATOC told me all companies should show the same tickets and prices (excluding any booking fees). Can anyone confirm if this is true?

No - they are not allowed to do that. My guess is their interface is screwed up rather than that they are actually trying to charge extra.

Is it possible you were asking for two tickets? A bit far fetched, I'm sure, but not beyond the bounds of possibility.

Looking at a journey I do from time to time, the same cheap advance singles as before are there, not double in price - in fact the cheapest fare has gone down £1.50

digitaltoast

dzug1 wrote: »

No - they are not allowed to do that. My guess is their interface is screwed up rather than that they are actually trying to charge extra.

Is it possible you were asking for two tickets? A bit far fetched, I'm sure, but not beyond the bounds of possibility

You had me worried there for a minute! So, I checked, because I saw that someone had replied to my post on a newsgroup saying they had seen it for £3.50, but someone replied on the railuk forums saying they saw £7 too.

What could be going on?!?

Now it gets weirder. I went right back and rechecked the ticket, paying close attention to the amount of tickets, and it was one ticket. And it was £7.

BUT...I had booked 2 tickets earlier in the day for a different trip. As an act of random thought, I then tried the same ticket in IE and not Firefox...and it was £3.50

I then went back to Firefox, cleared out the cache, cookies and sessions (so I was logged out of the site), restarted the browser...and it was £3.50

All I can assume from this is that somehow the CrossCountry site is screwed up in some way where it remembers in the cookie or session, something about two tickets, even when you are trying to book one.

Something to be aware of. I'm going to do some more testing in the morning - not sure how without booking a ticket, but I wonder if it's the site, or my Firefox (2.0.0.14)

dzug1

I've seen something similar on other sites as well (FGW, Chiltern) - remembering some of the details from an earlier request and giving odd results. Starting a new session usually fixes it. I only have IE - not Firefox