‘End cheap advance rail fares’

CHEAP advance rail fares could be phased out under radical industry plans to modernise the way people book train journeys.

Today the Rail Delivery Group, which represents train operators, is calling for a digital overhaul of fares which could mean passengers who buy tickets on board pay the same price as those who have booked months in advance.

At present, advance tickets costing as little as £15 are available for the same journeys for which last-minute tickets can cost hundreds of pounds.

Under the plans, passengers will be given a “national travel account”, letting them manage and book journeys with any rail provider through a single smartphone app. This could eventually be extended to buses and taxis, the RDG said.

Journeys booked through the app will be automatically allocated the lowest available fare, mitigating the need for so-called split-ticketing, where two

separate tickets to a destination are cheaper than the cost of a single fare. The national travel accounts will also form a centralised database which allows firms to reward passengers with personalised loyalty discounts.

The shake-up is designed to stop passengers getting ripped off by confusing fares.

Any measures will be designed to be revenue neutral with no change in average fares and no extra support from taxpayers. If more expensive fares were removed therefore, then cheaper fares would have to rise to ensure any changes remain neutral.

It comes weeks after Chris Grayling, the Transport Secretary, defended the principle of charging people more for tickets bought at the last minute.

“It is no different on the railways to the airlines,” he said.

“Walking up at the last minute on a principal business route will cost you a lot more than booking a month in advance.” However, last night consumer groups came out in support of ending advance tickets, arguing that the current system unfairly penalised people who needed to make emergency trips.

James Daley, the director at consumer group Fairer Finance, said: “There will be winners and losers but the good thing is that it would stop really unfair outcomes.”

The RDG’S consultation will propose a range of other ideas for simplifying train fares, including calculating prices based on the level of service received and scrapping peak time premiums.

However, Andy Wakeford, the head of fares at the Rail Delivery Group, said he thought these suggestions were unlikely to be implemented.

 Disabled people in wheelchairs will not be able to use a third of trains on a major route this summer because the operator is bringing back 45-year-old carriages. Many Transpennine Express services in the north of England will not have space for wheelchairs.