Cotswold line fares - risen in practical terms far more than inflation??

[whole diary]

[grahame]

From The Metro

Extortionate train fares make it impossible to visit family – so I don’t

But this article is a bit different - it looks at not only the anytime fares that can be "silly" but the lack of the  lower price fares that the interviewee used to use, and has made it more difficult to find them too

There was the time I once bagged tickets for as low as £9 thanks to National Rail’s ‘Cheapest Fare Finder’ tool. Sadly, that’s since gone the way of the Dodo though and now lies in the train graveyard, in a joint-burial with affordable fares.

The 4.6% fare rise is the headline - has the average price paid by passengers gone up much more than that because of things like the slashing of advance fare allocations or the restructuring of the balance between the various advance levels?

The figures quoted in the article are for Paddington to Great Malvern - hence my filing here in the North Cotswold board - is the news similar across the GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) are or indeed across the UK^▸ (United Kingdom)?

[ChrisB]

Hmmm.....define "reasonable"

It's different for everyone, usually dependent on disposable income.

A week away in June for example, Wednesday to Wednesday can be got for a reasonable £46.20 return

[Mark A]

If I have this right, which will be a miracle, some figures: [Annual season, no railcard, daily cost] vs a return journey (With) / Without a railcard:

Paddington to Bristol Temple Meads super off peak return: [£59:29](£51:90) £78:00  118 miles. [25](22)33 pence per mile.
Paddington to Great Malvern, ditto: [£47:45](£48:75) £73:20 129 miles. [18](19)28 pence per mile.

Another comparison: Paddington to Penzance, super off peak, no railcard: £150:00 for 304 miles, so, 25 pence per mile. (Annual season ticket to Penzance works out as £76:98 per day & 13 pence per mile...)

The daily rate for an annual season ticket can perhaps be a good benchmark indicator for... something.

Advance fares sort-of do-not-count as they're here today gone tomorrow prices and changes to the allocations can be wildly inflationary for the individual - for fares, the floor for passengers is the buy-at-the-time-of-travel - as that's the one you'll need when life throws something at you.

In a way it would be good for everyone if the railway displayed the rate per mile in some fashion as those can take the sting out of a price (or not, as the case may be). Probably best not to put them on the seat reservation displays, mind...

Mark

[grahame]

Advance fares sort-of do-not-count as they're here today gone tomorrow prices and changes to the allocations can be wildly inflationary for the individual - for fares, the floor for passengers is the buy-at-the-time-of-travel - as that's the one you'll need when life throws something at you.

And they sort-of DO count is people have been habitually using them and find them unavailable.   

Withdrawing / reducing substantially the availability of advance fares that have been offered for long enough for them to be come part of people's routine is an easy and perhaps sneaky way of putting up the average fare you expect people to pay over and above other fare rises, without it being straightforward to hang a headline on what might be a substantial rise in the average amount paid.

Yes, it is possible to find a Wednesday to Wednesday round trip, probably at some time of day when few people want to travel, and hail that as "low fares still available" with a hurt look at anyone who suggests such fares are not available.  But that's not the point - the point is that potentially that for most people, the cheaper options may no longer be practically available.

[Mark A]

When I checked those fares, the system gave me the impression that with a railcard added, there was suddenly more availability of  advance fares, but I suppose that's quotas for you. Also, the advance fares in GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)-land (and I think TfW^▸ (Transport for Wales)-land) now tend to be at the top end of the discount range and therefore tend to be undercut by superadvance returns so your point is a good one.

Mark