Virgin split ticketing app to cut £1 billion from fares

[whole diary]

[TaplowGreen]

https://www.virgin.com/news/new-split-ticketing-app-will-cut-ps1bn-rail-fares

Excellent idea. Let's hope all TOCs^▸ (Train Operating Company) are obliged to follow suit.

[Surrey 455]

Interesting idea. Will Virgin Trains still be around when the app is launched?

[grahame]

Interesting idea. Will Virgin Trains still be around when the app is launched?

Perhaps a very pertinent question ... as they move from making their margin from running trains (where they'll want to maximise their income per passenger) to selling tickets - "another trainline" - where perhaps it's more about maximising the number of customers over the whole rail network.

[TaplowGreen]

It's very good news for the customer, which is the main point, and a step in the right direction towards enabling navigation through the ridiculous labyrinth of fares, and a means by which customers can be more confident that they are getting the best deal.

[Robin Summerhill]

Is it just me, but...

To use this app, presumably you need to have a phone with an internet connection. If you have such a device, there are already umpteen web sites out there you can access that will produce the same results.

So how will it help the non-internet-savvy Mrs Bloggs who turns up at the TVM^▸ (Ticket Vending Machine) at Melksham (or a similar station on Virgin's "patch") on a Saturday morning wanting to buy the cheapest day return to London?

And by the way, is this the same Virgin that wants season ticket holders to reserve a set for their 9-minute commute from Warrington to Wigan?

[Richard Fairhurst]

Mrs Bloggs, or indeed 99% of the population, hasn't heard of geeksplit.com or trainnarg.com or any of those umpteen websites. She has, however, heard of Virgin.

[Robin Summerhill]

Mrs Bloggs, or indeed 99% of the population, hasn't heard of geeksplit.com or trainnarg.com or any of those umpteen websites. She has, however, heard of Virgin.

Your point noted and I see mine wasn't particularly well-made

The thrust of my point was that this app, and the existing ticket splitting sites, are fine for those members of the population who have mobile internet access and understand those sites and/or the app.

For those members of the population who don't have that internet access, and/or don't understand those sites and the app, it's going to make precious little difference. And as I see it at the moment (and as I said earlier) I struggle to see what benefits it is likely to bring to the intending passenger (especially a casual one who uses trains irregularly) who turns up at an unstaffed station and have to negotiate a TVM^▸ (Ticket Vending Machine) with its (usually) limited range of products.

Plus of course the idea is currently only being promoted by Virgin. Whether or not other TOCs^▸ (Train Operating Company) will jump on the same bandwagon, if indeed Virgin get it up and running in the first place, still remains to be seen.

[Pb_devon]

Also....how the devil will it handle “retrospective capping”? Oyster^▸ (Smartcard system used by passengers on Transport for London services) does it by touching in/out, so will Melksham be so equipped?
I think not!

[grahame]

Also....how the devil will it handle “retrospective capping”? Oyster^▸ (Smartcard system used by passengers on Transport for London services) does it by touching in/out, so will Melksham be so equipped?
I think not!

Curiously (?) even Breich was so equipped ... and that at the time it was under threat.   So don't rule it out. Even at Pilning which, after all, recorded 4 times the number of passengers of Breich in the most recent ORR^» (Office of Rail and Road, formerly Office of Rail Regulation - about) figures!