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Chris from Nailsea
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« on: October 07, 2009, 18:26:21 » |
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From the Daily Mirror: Millions of passengers will be out of pocket as train fares soar fourfold this Christmas. Families travelling to meet loved ones will be hit by rip-off charges as only one in 20 tickets is available at a cheap advance rate.
National Express East Coast, which launched its festive fares on Friday, admitted its limited number of cheap advance bookings had already sold out. And yesterday a travel watchdog called on train companies to give cashstrapped passengers a fair deal at the busiest time of the year.
A Mirror investigation found a National Express East Coast journey from London to Edinburgh was advertised as from ^12 each way for Christmas travel. But we found no cheap advance fares were available for traditional travel dates of December 23 and 24. Instead, passengers face fares between ^24.05 and ^42.70, rising to ^48.05 - four times the advertised ^12 price - for a single back to London on December 27 or 28.
Travelling on the same days of the week a fortnight earlier, London-Edinburgh is just ^16.50 on nine trains on December 9 and 10 - and the same on virtually every train coming back on December 12.
It's a similar picture with London to Newcastle tickets. National Express East Coast spokesperson John Gelson said: "The vast majority of our Christmas and New Year fares went on sale on Friday. Customers took advantage of tickets the moment they went on sale. They sell out very quickly."
Train company First Great Western puts its Christmas tickets on sale today with others expected to follow this week.
Anthony Smith, of independent rail watchdog Passenger Focus said: "We strongly believe there should be affordable turn-up-and-go tickets, which is how railway users like to travel."
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William Huskisson MP▸ was the first person to be killed by a train while crossing the tracks, in 1830. Many more have died in the same way since then. Don't take a chance: stop, look, listen.
"Level crossings are safe, unless they are used in an unsafe manner." Discuss.
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devon_metro
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« Reply #1 on: October 07, 2009, 18:32:42 » |
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Slightly missing the point, whether or not the train companies sell 1 or 500 advance tickets for a train, it will be packed. Christmas trains are always a complete nightmare!
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The Grecian
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« Reply #2 on: October 07, 2009, 19:19:30 » |
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I love the mock outrage in these stories every single year. If trains are going to be much busier than usual of course there aren't going to be any cheap tickets - why on earth would there be? Cheap tickets are there to fill empty seats.
The most shocking thing about this article is that it appears in every single newspaper every year and the Mirror's trying to pass it off as an exclusive.
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Chris from Nailsea
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« Reply #3 on: October 07, 2009, 20:46:33 » |
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I do sympathize, chaps!  When I post such items, my intention is merely to encourage topical debates on this forum - not to make any particular point: I simply quote the articles, as published. However, in this particular case, I have to say that I did think it was a bit rich for the Mirror to claim it as an 'exclusive'!  |
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William Huskisson MP▸ was the first person to be killed by a train while crossing the tracks, in 1830. Many more have died in the same way since then. Don't take a chance: stop, look, listen.
"Level crossings are safe, unless they are used in an unsafe manner." Discuss.
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JayMac
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« Reply #4 on: October 08, 2009, 00:24:59 » |
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Could someone point the journo responsible for this article to; 'Yield Management' in a business dictionary or similar.
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"Build a man a fire and he'll be warm for the rest of the day. Set a man on fire and he'll be warm for the rest of his life."
- Sir Terry Pratchett.
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inspector_blakey
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« Reply #5 on: October 08, 2009, 19:41:06 » |
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It's a load of old tosh anyway. I just got a first class advance fare from heathrow to Swansea on Christmas Eve for GBP38. Woo!
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matt473
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« Reply #6 on: October 08, 2009, 20:16:06 » |
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Whilst I just found a standard ticket for ^12.50 from London to Swansea. If that's expensive then there is no chance of winning against the journo's
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Chris from Nailsea
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« Reply #7 on: October 24, 2009, 01:11:04 » |
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Another 'reveal', from the Daily Mirror: Rail passengers are being lured by cut-price Christmas deals ^ only to find the cheaper tickets cover a fraction of festive services.
We can reveal families face sky-high charges on eight out of 10 journeys with First Great Western.
The south-west route giant, which operates between London, Cornwall and Wales, put its cut-price festive fares on sale last week. But our investigation found the cheap ^15 advance tickets were only available on a handful of trains over the holiday.
On December 23 the ^15 advance single was offered on just two out of 10 trains between London and Penzance. And passengers would have to set off at 7.30am or arrive after midnight.
Tickets for other trains on the same day cost ^38.90 for a single ^ two and a half times dearer.
But for families travelling back after visiting loved ones, low-cost deals were even harder to come by with just one in 10 available at the ^15 rate on December 27.
Otherwise journeys cost between ^31.65 and ^46.10. London-Plymouth fares were also dear with just three out of 16 trains at the lowest ^13 price on December 23, with other services costing between ^27.20 and ^33.90.
Returning on December 27, only three out of 17 trains cost ^13 ^ with the others priced between ^21.10 and ^40.
The Transport Salaried Staffs^ Association union, which represents 30,000 train workers, slammed the unfair prices.
General secretary Gerry Doherty said: ^Train travel this Christmas is a rip-off. Passengers are held to ransom, as the nearer you get to Christmas, the dearer it is to travel.
^Companies exploit the market as the percentage of advance tickets can go as low as 5%, while it is normally thought to be around 10%. We want every company compelled to say how many cheap seats are available and when.^
First Great Western spokeswoman Cath Millman said: ^A lot of fares are on sale. If it^s a popular train, the best fares will have been sold.^
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William Huskisson MP▸ was the first person to be killed by a train while crossing the tracks, in 1830. Many more have died in the same way since then. Don't take a chance: stop, look, listen.
"Level crossings are safe, unless they are used in an unsafe manner." Discuss.
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devon_metro
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« Reply #8 on: October 24, 2009, 13:05:00 » |
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Oh my lord, ^38 London - Penzance, beat that by car!!!
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JayMac
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« Reply #9 on: October 24, 2009, 20:57:46 » |
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Oh my lord, ^38 London - Penzance, beat that by car!!!
Devils advocate..... Fill the car, say 2 adults and 2 children and you easily beat the quoted fares. |
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"Build a man a fire and he'll be warm for the rest of the day. Set a man on fire and he'll be warm for the rest of his life."
- Sir Terry Pratchett.
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devon_metro
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« Reply #10 on: October 24, 2009, 20:59:49 » |
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Oh my lord, ^38 London - Penzance, beat that by car!!!
Devils advocate..... Fill the car, say 2 adults and 2 children and you easily beat the quoted fares. I quite agree, but the Daily Fail seems to think its scandalous that ^15 tickets aren't available! |
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Btline
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« Reply #11 on: October 24, 2009, 23:33:48 » |
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Devils advocate.....
Fill the car, say 2 adults and 2 children and you easily beat the quoted fares.
Exactly, ^39 is a lot per person for a family, for example. |
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Exeter
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« Reply #12 on: October 25, 2009, 09:03:38 » |
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Perhaps ^39 to some people is expensive - to others its quite reasonable! Its down to personal choice and opinion! But BT Line, please answer me this one............ As a highly unlikely scenario but never the less............ you run your own train company and you know that at a certain time of year your trains are going to be busy. I cannot imagine you being so charitable as to fill up your trains charging people ^15 for a journey when you know that even at ^50 your trains will be full and standing and people will be turned away. You cant run any extra trains because there aren't any available so from a pure business point of view what do you do?  ? |
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Zoe
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« Reply #13 on: October 25, 2009, 09:18:52 » |
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^39 x 2 is ^78 for a return. You are only saving ^5 by booking in advance and lose the flexibility of a Super Off Peak fare.
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inspector_blakey
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« Reply #14 on: October 25, 2009, 23:26:28 » |
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Can we look forward to an "exclusive" from the Mirror shrieking about peak-hour commuters paying more to arrive in London before 0900 than everyone else? Given that Christmas Eve is one of the busiest travel days of the year, it surely doesn't make sense to swamp trains with advance tickets. If the policy means that people end up travelling a day or two earlier to get cheaper fares then won't that provide a more pleasant journey fro them and take some of the pressure off on 24 Dec?
Yield management applies all over the world. For example, try travelling from Philadelphia to Washington DC▸ on Amtrak over Thanksgiving weekend, leaving Wednesday night, returning Sunday night (the peak travel times for that holiday). You won't get much change from $180 (^100+) each way on a slower, Regional train or possibly twice that on the faster Acela services. This is a journey comparably in length to London - Cardiff where the off-peak return is a relatively cheap ^61.00.
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