Massive increase in Railcard fares ... or journalistic exageration?

[whole diary]

[stuving]

According to the Standard:

Train firms to cut railcard discounts without telling passengers
The PA^▸ (Public Address (broadcast loudspeaker announcements) or Passenger Assist (railway staff providing physical assistance to passengers with mobility issues), depending on context) news agency understands fare reductions will be reduced from 34% to 33.4% from September 15

Apparently some information sources had published the 34% figure, which presumably was only a simplification, and haven't got round to changing it. Shock horror!

A section on railcard discounts on the National Rail Enquiries website was updated in June to remove references to 34%.

Most railcard advertising states that the cards provide savings of a third off usual fares, but some operators’ websites continue to give the 34% figure, including East Midlands Railway and Heathrow Express.

Bruce Williamson, of lobby group Railfuture, said: “Whilst this represents a very tiny increase in fares for some passengers, it’s a step in the wrong direction.

“As the slogan goes, every little helps, so why risk irritating passengers for a few pence?”

Michael Solomon Williams, of pressure group Campaign for Better Transport, called for the introduction of a northern network railcard to make the system “fairer” by giving passengers in the north of England “the same discount offered to many of their southern counterparts by regional railcards”.

[ChrisB]

Has CBT^» (Campaign for Better Transport - visit) even looked at the fare disparity between the South & the North?

[grahame]

From The BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page)

The train fare discount being offered to Railcard users is being cut by operators this month.

Savings are advertised as being one-third and are currently applied at a rate of 34% for Railcards held by people including those aged 16-30 and over 60.

The discount will be trimmed to 33.4% from the middle of September as the rail operators looks to boost income from fares.

While the move will add only small amounts to individual ticket prices, a pro-rail group has described it as a "step in the wrong direction".

The cut will take effect from 15 September, the PA^▸ (Public Address (broadcast loudspeaker announcements) or Passenger Assist (railway staff providing physical assistance to passengers with mobility issues), depending on context) news agency understands.

An off-peak return from London to Manchester, which costs £109 at full price, is available for £72.55 on Sunday 15 September for railcard users.

The same ticket on Saturday 14 September is reduced to £71.90.

[stuving]

While the price increase may be too small to get worked up about, TOCs^▸ (Train Operating Company), jointly (as RDG^▸ (Rail Delivery Group, or Reading station, depending on context), NRE^▸ (National Rail Enquiries), etc.) and severally, may have set a trap for themselves. While they were advertising 34% off, the entity that sold railcards (ATOC^» (Association of Train Operating Companies see - here) Limited trading as Railcard) always said they give 1/3 off. So in a sense they were being mis-sold, but TOCs avoided any criminality by implementing the discount as 34%. (That is done by TSA^▸ (Ticketing and Settlement Agreement. The TSA sets out the various arrangements between the train operators relating to the carriage of passengers and the retailing of tickets.), which is also really RDG/ATOC.)

So now they want to bring the advertised and delivered discount back into line with the original promise of 1/3 off, though they have not yet got all the advertising on message. But before reducing the implemented discount, should they not wait for three years after changing the promised rate, until existing cards will have expired? Of course by then - given enough "move fast" - this may be GBR^▸ (Great British Railways)'s problem!

[Richard Fairhurst]

It's ludicrous. There appears to be more press worry about this (50p on the occasional journey?) than on the massive stealth price rise imposed by LNER^» (London North Eastern Railway - about)'s pricing rejig.

[Ralph Ayres]

It's ludicrous. There appears to be more press worry about this (50p on the occasional journey?) than on the massive stealth price rise imposed by LNER^» (London North Eastern Railway - about)'s pricing rejig.

Rather easier I suspect for the journalists to understand a slight percentage adjustment than the complex changes involved in LNER's rejig, which make buying Oasis tickets a doddle in comparison.

[grahame]

Looking online (Melksham to Oxford, 14th and 21st September) it would appear that the change applied to the railcard fare does not apply to the groupsave fare.  So there you go - fare simplification and yet another different walk up price ...