Drop in season ticket sales

[whole diary]

[grahame]

From The Guardian

Latest figures suggest fed-up commuters are abandoning the train as fares are set to rise again

The number of rail journeys made using season tickets has fallen to a seven-year low, as passenger groups warn that fare rises are forcing commuters to abandon the train.

Figures slipped out by the Department for Transport before Christmas reveal a 9.4% drop in season ticket sales between July and September 2017 compared with the same quarter the previous year. There was a double-digit drop the previous quarter.

The Office of Rail and Road quarterly figures note that the number of journeys between July and September 2017 made using season tickets fell to its “lowest since 2010-11 Q2, with 15 million fewer journeys made compared to this time last year”.

Some of the fall can be attributed to strike action. But as commuters prepare to return to work on Tuesday – when fares will rise by up to 3.6% – the Campaign for Better Transport said it was becoming evident that rail passengers have had enough.

“Rail commuters are fed up with being used as cash cows for government coffers,” said Stephen Joseph, chief executive of the Campaign for Better Transport. “This year’s rise is the highest for five years, at a time when wages aren’t increasing, and there’ll be real anger on the trains about this. But also there are signs that commuters are just voting with their feet and simply changing their work or homes to avoid the ever more expensive daily commute.”

I think there's probably a lot of truth in Stephen Joseph's final comments which could be expanded.

* Wide broadband connectivity allows far more people to work from home than used to be the case, meaning that many people are only in their office for 2 to 4 days a week and the rest of the time they don't need to travel.

* With changing work metrics and towards a 24 x 7 society, more people are travelling "shoulder peak" than actually in the peak, buying tickets on a daily basis as they do so as on most routes, a weekly season is only a saving is you make five return peak trips in the week

* With pay as you go systems (Contactless, Oyster^▸ (Smartcard system used by passengers on Transport for London services)) being available over an expanded area, season tickets and their convenience on lines where they were previously the obvious choice are now a less obvious choice.

Season tickets remain a very good buy on certain routes

* the £42 weekly season from Westbury to Swindon via Melksham is way down from the £69 you would have paid in 2013 (let's remind ourselves of little sanity corrections to the system) but even there, if you are NOT leaving Westbury on the 07:04 or 07:33 for five days, you'll probably do better with returns / off peak returns.

* a £243 weekly season from Chippenham to London Paddington sounds expensive, but with an anytime return at £172, advise is to buy a season if you're making just two or more round trips in the peak both ways.

[ellendune]

* a £243 weekly season from Chippenham to London Paddington sounds expensive, but with an anytime return at £172, advise is to buy a season if you're making just two or more round trips in the peak both ways.

I think this has more to do with the unregulated Anytime fare being extortionately expensive (as are most long distance anytime fares on GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)) than the cheapness of the regulated Season. 

[grahame]

* a £243 weekly season from Chippenham to London Paddington sounds expensive, but with an anytime return at £172, advise is to buy a season if you're making just two or more round trips in the peak both ways.

I think this has more to do with the unregulated Anytime fare being extortionately expensive (as are most long distance anytime fares on GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)) than the cheapness of the regulated Season. 

I agree.  If you're looking to make two peak hour return trips on any Chippenham to London service during a seven day period, a 7 day season makes best sense.  I did not intend to give any impression that I consider the season ticket to be cheap!

[Sixty3Closure]

I'm fortunate in not having to travel into London every day and I now walk the 30 mins from Paddington to my office in the morning but even then the annual season ticket remained generally cheaper than other options as I have to travel peak times.

Doing the sums on working in London 3 days a week plus occasional tube it still works out fairly similar costs but it is a lot more hassle buying tickets everyday (closed or busy ticket offices) and doesn;t take into account other journeys around the south east i might make. While its sort of a testement of the relative value of an annual season ticket I'm not sure the current system encourages flexible travel.

The other challenge from Twyford is the lack of fast services after about 8.55. So I could travel off peak but it makes my journey so much longer.

Some sort of Carnet system would be good. Say a book of 20 discounted journeys that can be used any day.

[Tim]

I've certainly taken fewer business trips to London (from Bath) in the peak than I used to.  Factors include my firm wising up to the huge cost, better technology, extra slack in the timetable meaning a need to get up a couple of minutes earlier, removal of option to buy ticket on train meaning a need to get up a couple more minutes earlier and less pleasant refurbished HSTs^▸ (High Speed Train).  But It has gone from a twice a week trip to once very couple of months (and not always in the peak then).  Train travel for leisure purposes and to one-off business locations has increased during that time.