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Title: A new type of train ticket for the return to the office Post by: grahame on February 09, 2021, 18:20:54 Press release just in from RailFuture
A new type of train ticket for the return to the office Rail campaigners are calling for a new type of rail ticket for people who spend only part of their working time in the workplace. Neil Middleton, a director of Railfuture who is leading the campaign, said: "There's often an enormous gap between the price per journey for someone travelling five days a week with a season ticket and someone who travels two or three days a week – our proposal aims to bridge this gap." The railway already regularly offers Carnet tickets – in return for buying a bundle of tickets in advance, a small discount is given (typically 5% or 10%) and all the tickets need to be used within a set period (often two or three months). "Our idea is for an additional type of Carnet ticket, with a bigger discount, where the bundle must be used much more quickly. Priced at the cost of a weekly season, it would offer five return journeys that must be used within two weeks. Aimed at the five to six times a fortnight workplace attender, it would often benefit a four-days-a-fortnight attender. "Whilst we're in lockdown, workplace attendance is only expected when you cannot reasonably work from home. When lockdown ends, and social distancing starts to ease, we're confident that many people will continue to spread their working time between their home and the workplace." Chris Page, chair of Railfuture, said: "We're keen that passengers who don't commute to the workplace every weekday get a fare reduction as compared to the more occasional user. Our ideas are designed to work using the ticket technology that's in place now. In the medium term, smarter fare options may well be needed to spread attendance across all of Monday to Friday." Also Quote Notes to editors: Railfuture is the UK's leading independent organisation campaigning for better rail services for both passengers and freight. Railfuture's ideas are set out at https://railfuture.org.uk/article1872-Creating-a-flexible-season-ticket-for-2021; we also have a FAQ at https://railfuture.org.uk/Flexi+Season+Tickets+2021+-+FAQ; this includes a downloadable example. Observations: It is important to remember that some workplace attenders will still need to travel in peak hours every day, and so the traditional season ticket needs to be retained. Railfuture's preferred approach is for these tickets to be sold only on Smartcards, although alternatives will be needed where stations do not have the necessary readers. Railfuture's website can be found at: www.railfuture.org.uk. Follow Railfuture on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Railfuture. Title: Re: A new type of train ticket for the return to the office Post by: ChrisB on February 10, 2021, 15:25:07 Good to see this idea receiving some traction!
It could also be expanded to flex a monthly season - say 20 return journeys flexed over 10 weeks or so. Providing extra flexibility in exchange for the 'free' weekend use is a fair exchange in my view. This page is printed from the "Coffee Shop" forum at http://gwr.passenger.chat which is provided by a customer of Great Western Railway. Views expressed are those of the individual posters concerned. Visit www.gwr.com for the official Great Western Railway website. Please contact the administrators of this site if you feel that content provided contravenes our posting rules ( see http://railcustomer.info/1761 ). The forum is hosted by Well House Consultants - http://www.wellho.net |