Deals announced
The Government has announced a half-price fare offer, further funding for innovation, and a new management contract for the Govia network.
THE offer of one million half-price tickets, launched by the Government, has little significance. Around five million journeys were made daily before the pandemic, and even pessimistic scenarios suggest the demand for rail travel has already recovered to four million daily users.
The offer is for journeys with England-based operators between April 25 and May 27, a total of 33 days, so in reality it is below 1% of the number of people who could be expected to travel. And forget the idea that the promotion can be purchased at your local station, as the tickets can only be bought online, which immediately excludes people who do not have ready access to digital technology.
The scope of the sale is also limited, as it has been left to the train operating companies controlled by the Department of Transport to select routes on which the offer is made.
The reality for many intending passengers is that typing in your intended journey will bring up the existing range of available tickets, although this could be seen as a benefit in creating higher awareness of the journey opportunities that are already available.
The thinking being the initiative is probably to dispel the view that the price of rail tickets has become uncompetitive compared to using a private car, and the advertising campaign provides awareness that existing fares are competitive if care is taken about the time journeys are made.
A big task for the new Great British Railways organisation is to establish a pricing policy that every potential rail user understands. Perhaps the biggest conflict is whether the past policy of providing a high frequency service to encourage ‘a turn up and go’ attitude to rail travel should be replaced by a need to book in advance.
A starting point is to define what is meant by ‘Metro’ services, where zonal fares reflect an offer that is based on a turn up and go approach, but the provision of services within what can be considered as metro areas by longer distance operators causes immediate confusion.
Cross Country has an immediate problem with this, in that there is a world of difference between a trip between the West Country and Manchester and local journeys in the Birmingham and Manchester conurbations where its services are available.
LNER has a similar issue where, for example, the number of journeys between Wakefield and Leeds is greater than those originating from London. Similarly, commuters using trains between King’s Cross and Peterborough can crowd out longer distance passengers. It can also be argued that Great Western Railway destroyed its longer-distance offering by configuring its rolling stock to cater for the demand from Reading and the Thames Valley into London.
The trend to working from home will reduce the future volume of commuters, but they remain an important element as travel to work journeys have historically allowed higher fares to be charged than for more discretionary travel.
ScotRail followed the UK Government announcement with a similar half-price scheme, which was launched on April 21 but with the purchase of tickets restricted to a window from May 9-15 for use outward before the end of May and return before June 30.
The offer marketed under a ‘Yours to use’ banner reflects the nationalisation of ScotRail from April 1 and the intention to promote greater awareness of available train services. It is only available by using the ScotRail website and covers all weekday off-peak travel between any two stations in Scotland using valid routes, which presumably means that journeys must be made in accordance with the ‘any permitted route’ definition.
Again, it would be more inclusive if the tickets could be purchased at ticket offices, but it is likely to have been judged a necessity to have online quotas in place to restrict the number of sales for the Highland scenic routes, which could become overwhelmed by demand.
“A big task for the new Great British Railways organisation is to establish a pricing policy that every potential rail user understands”