First smart ‘flexi’ season tickets to be launched on Yorkshire line

THE NORTH’S first smart ‘flexi’ season rail tickets are being launched on one of Yorkshire’s busiest routes in a bid to help passengers return to train travel.

Passengers travelling between Leeds and Harrogate can download the tickets onto their smartcards from today. Unlike existing season tickets, they offer ten unlimited travel days for the price of nine which can be taken at any time over the following six months.

Transport for the North, which is launching the scheme, says the new tickets “guarantee value and flexibility in a world where passengers say they’re unlikely to return to five-day-week commute”.

It comes as a leading northern transport expert warns that passengers may not be “psychologically ready” to get back on trains in large numbers because of the fear of contracting coronavirus.

The strategic transport body, which is also launching the new ticket on Merseyside, is planning to roll it out to 161 stations across the North in the coming months at a cost of £12m. But it says it needs the Department for Transport to hand over a further £27m from the existing smart transport budget so the remaining 336 stations in the region can use them.

The subnational transport body has already installed ‘tap-intap-out’ systems on platforms at 90 stations as well as moving the majority of season ticket-holders from paper to smart cards. Its vision is a London-style pay-as-yougo travel using contactless bank cards or smartphones for public transport payments.

The scheme was announced today by Jeremy Acklam, who coled the development and launch of the UK’s first online rail ticket retailer Trainline and is the new Director for TfN’s Integrated and Smart Travel programme.

He said: “The launch of flexi seasons is a major and timely milestone in our mission to transform travel across the North of England. Now more than ever, due to the impact of coronavirus on our travel habits, passengers need safer, better value and more convenient ways to pay for public transport. Flexi seasons will provide this for thousands of passengers.”

The Department for Transport said it had already provided £24m for smart travel in the North and would consider the request for further funding.

A TRANSPORT expert appointed by the Government to run the North’s biggest rail operator says he fears passengers are not “psychologically ready” to return to train travel in large numbers after months of being told to avoid public transport.

Richard George said he was worried about the long-term finances of rail operators due to the lack of passengers travelling by train, amid fears it could be up to a decade before demand returns to pre-lockdown levels.

Passenger numbers plummeted from March onwards as the Government advised people to avoid public transport where possible and it has been mandatory for since June for passengers to wear a face covering.

Social distancing restrictions mean trains could only carry a fraction of their normal numbers. And though the number of services increased in May and earlier this month, demand for trains is currently around 15 to 20 per cent of pre-pandemic levels.

Mr George, who chairs the public sector operator which runs what used to be the Northern rail franchise, told political leaders attending a meeting of Transport for the North’s Rail North Committee: “We are carrying around a lot of fresh air at the moment, which costs everybody a lot of money.”

The former Director of Transport for the 2012 Olympic Games in London added: “As a public transport system, as a mass transit system, we want to be carrying people. That’s what we’re here for.

“But as we stand at the moment, we are treading that balancing act between complying with the regulations on social distancing and providing as much capacity as we can, given that the capacity itself is constrained by some of the resources we have available to do it.

“The thing that I’m worried about for the long term is the psychology of it for our customers.

“And the psychology of ‘are they ready to come back, we want them to come back, we can’t with the current social distancing but even if we swept away all the social distancing, are they psychologically ready to come back to the railways’? And I worry about that because that has a longerterm implication.”

He was responding to a question from committee members and Cumbria county councillor Keith Little, who said trains in his area were “still virtually empty”.

He said that although operators were being encouraged by the Government to put on extra services as part of the gradual reopening of the economy, he did not know how the “tremendous” extra costs would be paid for with such low passenger numbers.

A report for the committee said that while passenger numbers remain low across the North’s railway network, “there has been a steady increase in patronage as lockdown measures have loosened and increased numbers of people return to work”.

A further “uplift” with more services is being planned for September to coincide with the expected return of schools and colleges.

The thing that I’m worried about for the long term is the psychology of it.

Richard George, chairman of public sector operator DfT OLR Holdings Limited.