Fare Dealer
RAIL fares expert Barry Doe says ‘heads in the sand’ approach is not helping passengers.
FOR some time now, a reader from Drumry has been complaining about the fares from his station to Edinburgh. He has got nowhere, and the responses he has received from ScotRail make little sense.
The lines going west from Glasgow Queen Street and Central Low Level stations join at Partick, then split again at the next station (Hyndland). One route goes via Yoker and the other via Westerton, until they re-join at Dalmuir. They then continue to one of my favourite towns (Helensburgh), with the West Highland Main Line to Mallaig leaving just before the penultimate stop of Craigendoran.
Our reader travels from Drumry, the second stop east of Dalmuir on the Westerton loop (the first is Singer). The Anytime Day Return to Edinburgh is £31. It is also £31 from Singer, but he noticed that from Dalmuir - the station furthest from Edinburgh - it is only £25.40.
He put this to ScotRail, which said that most people travelling from Drumry to Edinburgh go west to Dalmuir, from where they use a through train. Thus the fare from Drumry is higher to allow for this. ScotRail acknowledged that people do also go direct to Queen Street or Airdrie.
When pushed, ScotRail added that the £25.40 Dalmuir fare is, of course, valid via Drumry. Therefore, if users wish they may buy the Dalmuir to Edinburgh fare at Drumry and save £5.60.
Now, all fares are valid via Airdrie, and also via Falkirk by changing to Queen Street High Level. Looking at journey planners, I found that from Drumry, changing at Queen Street generally takes 92 minutes via Falkirk or 100 minutes via Airdrie.
However, from Drumry but changing at Dalmuir generally takes 109 minutes (and two changes) via Falkirk or 102 minutes via Airdrie.
In other words, going west via Dalmuir rather than direct to Queen Street takes a couple of minutes longer via Airdrie, or 17 minutes longer (and an additional change) via Falkirk. So where does ScotRtail get the information suggesting that most people from Drumry go west to get
east, despite it taking longer? In reality I doubt hardly anyone does - yet everyone is being charged £5.60 extra just in case they do.
ScotRail was an excellent railway when run by First. But sadly, in my view, it’s no longer up to the same standard. I feel certain that if this case had been discussed with ScotRail before, it would have understood and made sure fares never exceeded those from Dalmuir. Alternatively, separate fares could have been created for ‘direct’ and ‘via Dalmuir’. Instead it’s ‘heads-in-the-sand’ and nobody wants to admit obvious errors.
Our reader took the matter up with Transport Scotland. That was never going to get him anywhere! A ‘Franchise Manager’ replied, saying precisely what ScotRail had told him to say - not unreasonable, seeing that the Franchise Manager would have known nothing about fares in general or the situation in particular.
This is the sort of case that a British Rail fares manager would have sorted in ten minutes. Now it takes months to get nowhere!
In the meantime, our reader must continue buying the £25.40 Dalmuir fare to save money, which raises another issue. If Drumry booking office is open (it’s normally staffed all day), staff are obliged to sell it. But when it isn’t, a Dalmuir fare can’t be bought from the station’s ticket machine.
That means buying on the train and possibly getting involved with arguments about why he joined without a ticket when a machine is available.
Actually, this leads on to a related matter, because many stations in the future won’t have ticket offices, just banks of machines. Some stations will have roving staff who can sell other tickets on request, but many won’t.
What happens if you can’t get what you want from a machine, and staff won’t let you through barriers on the grounds that you must buy a ticket to travel?
To add to this problem, a lot of operators are changing guards’ ticket machines over to newer models with major downsides - most now only issue paper tickets and so can’t do cross-London fares, as such tickets won’t open Tube gates.
Northern’s new machines are like this. So if you want to travel from Dent to Margate and arrive at Dent, where there are no ticket machines, you buy from the guard. For decades he or she could sell you a throughout fare on a proper card ticket… but no longer.
Neither, with some operators, is it a case of getting a through ticket and changing it on arrival in London for a ‘ proper’ one, for CrossCountry has gone a stage further by not allowing its machines to even issue tickets for journeys that are off its system.
As an example, Leamington Spa to Paddington via Oxford is a frequently used option that involves CrossCountry to Reading, then onwards with Great Western Railway. If for any reason someone buys from the guard, a ticket can no longer be sold beyond Reading from their new machines. You have to buy to Reading, then on arrival pay a supplement at the booking office to make it up to the throughout fare to which you were entitled. Of course, in doing so you’ll miss onward trains.
Meanwhile, South West Trains’ new guards’ machines sell any point-to-point ticket on card. Good for them. The others are merely saving money despite inflicting severe constraints on their customers.