Cost of single walk-on rail tickets to be slashed

[whole diary]

[ellendune]

Cost of single walk-on rail tickets to be slashed

From the Daily Telegraph

The price of one way tickets is to be slashed by half under plans unveiled by Norman Baker, the rail minister
The Government is to end an anomaly that has left passengers paying almost as much for a one-way ticket as a return.
This will be done by controlling the price of off peak walk-on single fares rather than return tickets as is currently the practice.
Currently a one way off peak ticket to Birmingham is ^48, one pound less than the off peak return.
Under the new arrangements the price of a one-way ticket would fall to ^24.50, half the return fare.
A trial of the new arrangements will begin in 2015 on one of the long distance intercity routes. If successful it will be extended to the remainder of the network.

About time too.

Of course there is already a trial it is on FGW^▸ (First Great Western)!

[grahame]

Of course there is already a trial it is on FGW^▸ (First Great Western)!

Yes, indeed .. and I personally feel the FGW setup is a pretty fair and appropriate ratio between singles and returns.

[JayMac]

Although FGW^▸ (First Great Western) Super/Off Peak Singles aren't half the cost of the return. They were only at 50% for one fares round and are now 60-75% of the return. Since that one fares round the Singles have crept up and a higher percentage than the Returns.

FGW say on their website that, "Super Off Peak Single fares are also available at half the price of the Super Off-Peak Return, on many journeys."

That's just not correct. There are no flows where the Super Off Peak Single is half the price of the Return. There are also many flows where the singles (both Off Peak and Super Off Peak) are still priced at ^1 less than the return.

Then there are Day fares. The FGW priced Off Peak Day singles remain at around ^0.10 to ^1.00 less than the Off Peak Day Return.

[grahame]

Of course there is already a trial it is on FGW^▸ (First Great Western)!

Yes, indeed .. and I personally feel the FGW setup is a pretty fair and appropriate ratio between singles and returns.

Although FGW Super/Off Peak Singles aren't half the cost of the return. They [are] 60-75% of the return.

My view is that it's fair and appropriate that returns are somewhat cheaper than singles each way.  60% to 65% feels about right.

Having the web site say it's 50% is incorrect and should be amended.

Having day returns just 10p to 1.00 less remains unfair and should be amended in line with the 60% to 65% 'standard'.

[Southern Stag]

But what about fares where there are both period and Day returns, the single fare can't be 60-65% of both. If the single is ^1 less than the Day return but 60-65% less than the period return that seems about right to me. One current such fares is Penzance-Plymouth:
Off-Peak Day Single: ^9.40
Off-Peak Day Return: ^9.50
Off-Peak Return: ^18.10

That seems fairly fair to me.

[grahame]

But what about fares where there are both period and Day returns...

[snip]

Off-Peak Day Single: ^9.40
Off-Peak Day Return: ^9.50
Off-Peak Return: ^18.10

That seems fairly fair to me.

Hmmm ... I disagree, I'm afraid. If I travel from Plymouth to Penzance off-peak, and back by a train the same day, it costs 9.50 ... but if I stay overnight and travel back off-peak the next day it costs 18.10.  What possible justification is there for charging me nearly twice the amount for the return trip because it happens to be made a few hours later?

Perhaps I should have gone further in my original post / support of returns being around 60% of singles, and suggested that there should not be a day return - rather a period return that's valid for [time to be discussed - 8 days to 1 month].   

I have seen arguments earlier that it's hard to check return halves on short journeys, so they're just for a day.   But if the price of the return half goes up from 10p to five pounds, then you're not going to have the issue of lots of long-dated 10p tickets which would both tempt people to try it on, and at the same time cause staff and other travellers to get really upset about a potential fraud of travelling a day late.  A good way to stop a potential fraud is to redraw the system so that it's no longer worthwhile to do it - far better than fussing over enforcements on 10p fares!

[ellendune]

I am with Grahame here. 

If you want to reduce fraud on long dated tickets you could always insist that the single is for the date it is to be used.