Advance tickets - filling unused seats, or distributing passengers across trains

[whole diary]

[ChrisB]

....and your encounters aren't necessarily any more prevalent than mine, I might add.

OK, so these are a microcosm whichever way they are looked at. What I think we both agree on is that peak fares *are* too high regardless, and need reducing, certainly longer distance - if only to spread the loads more evenly with far fewer travelling at peak times. Maybe only temporarily, as those numbers will invariably increase over the next year as WFH^▸ (Working From Home) settles down into more of a routine.

Until the Government start to reduce the costs on the railway - and that is likely to engender some disruption as the unions will undoubtedly baulk at reduced pay rises (which make up the largest singular cost on the railway, I think), that can only mean rises in off-peak fares. I suspect TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company)-only fares will be the first to disappear as all TOCs become service operators in name only, with all branding to disappear in favour of GBR^▸ (Great British Railways), so that will recoup some farebox....but hopefully all fares will become mileage-based (with some difference regionally in pence-per-mile) - at least that would remove the need to split-fares & make fares fairer to start with.