Our plans will deliver better rail system

From: Paul Plummer, Chief Executive, Rail Delivery Group.

DAVID Behrens (The Yorkshire Post, February 23) misunderstands our proposals for once-in-a-generation reform of Britain’s rail fare system, and his criticism is in stark contrast to passenger groups, fares experts and politicians across the spectrum, who welcome our Easier Fares for All plan.

Contrary to Mr Behrens’ view that we have been forced to act because of the Williams review, we launched our consultation to review the fares system in May, four months before the review was announced. The consultation and proposals met a commitment we made to review the fares system for our customers, as part of the industry’s long-term plan.

His view that highlighting the central role of regulation in achieving reform is ‘buck passing’ wilfully misses the point. The fares system we have today is built on the foundations of the 1995 Ticketing Settlement Agreement, which spells out how fares should be set and sold.

Since then, new layers have been added, creating anomalies, and customers are now faced with a structure where they have to retrofit journey requirements to the fare available, and where it can sometimes be difficult to always find the best deal.

If adopted in full, our reforms our reforms would offer a more transparent, trusted and intuitive system.

Millions more passengers would also have the option to save money, with better options to mix and match their fares to the time of travel and a greater availability of ‘walk up’ fares.

Mr Behrens has a clear view of what he wants from an updated system. The good news is that our proposals would deliver that. Now, we want to work with the Government to bring the system up to date and implement the changes that he, and almost 20,000 people who responded to our consultation, want to see.