Return Train Tickets Being Scrapped

https://www.theguardian.com/busines...s-expected-to-be-scrapped-in-uk-rail-shake-up

Where is the common sense? When you go somewhere you want to go back the other way. This way is more time consuming and will be more expensive. Getting rid of paper tickets is dumb as well. Discrimating against those without a smart phone, making life harder mainly for the elderly.

 

It says the price of 2 singles will be the same as a current return, whereas at the minute a single is usually around 80% of the cost of a return on the routes I use. So unless I'm missing something it will make a single cheaper without affecting the price of a "return". I can't see how that would be unwelcome.

 

I suspect that they'll

a) Introduce booking fees ( I hate how the coach companies do this, and one of them says (or said) "Fares from £1" ..... plus 50p booking fee. So not possible to travel for £1 then.
b) a way to re-privatise companies that have basically been nationalised **
c) Make things worse.


* I remember when Virgin took over the WCML and did a massive advertising campaign in Kings Cross about how cheap they were - ********, they were better in every way under LNER.

 

It’ll work out the same price as a current return for a short amount of time and then they’ll just keep upping the cost until it’s way more.

 

The one that gets me is why, for example, buying tickets from Sheffield to Derby, Derby to Birmingham and Birmingham to Cheltenham Spa is significantly cheaper than buying one ticket from Sheffield to Cheltenham Spa.

 

Yes, I recently planned to go from Barnsley to Burton and found that a ticket was almost double the cost of a ticket from Barnsley to Sheffield plus a ticket from Sheffield to Burton - using exactly the same trains. Makes absolutely no sense.

 

It is something to do with crossing counties I think. Not that I'm saying it is right.

 

Having spent my career in deception, here’s how it goes...

Let’s say at the moment a single journey is £10 and a return £13.

Big media campaign announcing prices will be by slashed by 20% for all single journeys. Hurrah!

So single journey £8 but if you want to come back that’s another £8. So a return has gone up from £13 to £16. Most journeys I’d guess are returns so rail companies are quids in. Bonuses all round.

 

I always do. Their fault if the train is late.

 

LNER never ran the WCML - do you mean the ECML, which "Virgin"* took over a few years ago before it going pair shaped?

*Virgin East Coast was 90% Stagecoach, 10% Virgin Group.

 

I'd guess most journeys are regular commutes, so a season ticket would make more sense - even if just a weekly or monthly one.

 

I meant East Coast - the Doncaster line.

 

I've always wondered this .... I don't have an issue if my ticket leg changes on a through station where I don't change train ... but .....

My issue is one which I faced the other week (there was a rail strike so it didn't matter in the end). My ticket was Sheffield to Derby, but this was also my first leg. Had that train been late, and I'd have missed my connection in Derby and I think the rest of the ticket would have been invalid.

 

just buy from Sheffield on the day. Maybe a Derbyshire Wayfarer for two

 

The ticket pricing's bizarre. Waterloo to Fratton return on Saturday cost me just £11.00 return.

Trains 15 minutes or so either side of that were over £30.00 quid!

 

I was looking at a return to London. Doncaster to London was ~£80 for 2 return in March. Swinton to London nearly doubled it.

In fact, just checking on this and on the LNER website I can buy a single ticket to Kings Cross on Wednesday departing around 2pm for £29-35. Add an extra leg from Swinton to Doncaster and the price increases to £57! The cost of a ticket from Swinton to Doncaster is £2 from the same website.

It shouldn't need a fecking PhD in cryptography to work out the cheapest train fare.