digitaltoast

The Association of Train Operating Companies have announced a “simplification” of the fares – see also Rail fares ’set to be simplified’ (BBC)

Basically, despite the nonsense from AOTOC and Passenger Focus “welcoming” this move, it has meant BIG increases, in some cases DOUBLE the cheapest fare.

I spoke today to AOTOC, passenger focus and CrossCountry trains – this is well worth listening to if you are in any doubt that this new ticketing system is a scam:

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Examples:

SINGLE JOURNEY from Oxford (OXF) to Aberystwyth (AYW)
Currently: £10 After 18th April: £20.50

SINGLE JOURNEY from Reading (RDG) to Shrewsbury (SHR)
Currently: £10, After 18th April:£18.00

It doesn’t appear to apply to ALL fares, for example, Reading to Castle Cary seems unaffected.

I would be interested to know if YOUR journey will be affected:
Using the fares finder, you can check what the CHEAPEST available price will be BEFORE the 18th of May.

If you add the option to select 5 days, you could try, say:
12th May, 16th May, 26th May, 21st June, 21st July
If you see the cheapest prices available only BEFORE the 18th of May, you will know you’re probably onto a loser.
So, next step is to pick a date WAY into the future, say a mid-day in June, and find the cheapest fare (using the “show all fares” button)
And that is your new fare. If you are affected, post details below and if you want, add to the thread here:

How did I find this and how did I know I’m not just making a mistake and getting unlucky on the dates? As I passed through Reading earlier I asked the booking office why I couldn’t find these cheap fares, and they explained about the 18th of May, and that many of the cheapest tickets had been merged into a higher price. And the thing that really got me was that a ticket supervisor made me feel almost like I should have been grateful to have got the lower price – “not everyone can get these cheap tickets you get – it just makes it fairer on everyone”.
Oh, right, so everyone who bothers to plan in advance is penalised (on certain journeys, it seems).

Finally, as if a doubling of the fares themselves wasn’t enough…from ICWales:
“…among the changes being introduced are a ban on refunds for cancelled pre-booked business and first class tickets.

First Great Western – along with other UK operators Virgin, East Midlands Trains and TransPennine Express – currently offer refunds on their standard and first class pre-booked business tickets but will no longer do so under the new no-refund policy.

There is also likely to be an increase in the cost of changing journey times for return tickets bought in advance with some UK operators, with many routes doubling from £10 to £20″

PLEASE call Passenger Focus on 08453 022 022 and Crosscountry Trains on 0121 6547400 and also ATOC on (020) 7841 8000 as well as writing to your MP.

*UPDATE* 18th May 2008

I first contacted Arriva Cross Country, ATOC and Passenger Focus on 28th April to ask about these tickets price increases of over 100%. Since then, I have also contacted them and my MP in writing (only my MP has replied). Passenger Focus adn ATOC couldn’t have been less interested.

Last week, I was contacted by Vikki Miller from the Sunday Telegraph, who had heard my podcast and read similar travellers tales of unfair fares. Over the next couple of days, she and I put together a story (I put quite a lot of effort in too!).

Late on Friday evening, I got a phone call to say she had been called back by Arriva Cross Country.

Apparently, they (Arrive Cross Country) had “discovered”, on Wednesday 14th May (over 2 weeks after I’d contacted them) an error in the way the tickets had been entered onto the system. (An error…yeah right! Sussed out, more like)

However, despite tens of thousands of people booking tickets with at least a £10 premium on them because of the incorrect fare, there was no way of refunding them apparently! So, Arriva do well to the tune of… £50,000? £100,000? Who knows.

The result is that the story was watered down a bit – I still think it’s a shame this angle wasn’t covered – I think she missed a trick there. However, I’m guessing her intervention shook them up slightly and hopefully the result will be the proper priced tickets again.

However, I have just checked at 08:40 on Sunday 18th May 2008 and despite them having “discovered” the mistake 5 days ago, the incorrect fare is still showing on the National Rail website. So this story may have a little further to run…watch this space!

UPDATE: I received a letter dated June 10th with the following:

Thank you for your further letter about the re-structure of our tickets.

I am sorry for the confusion we may have caused in our previous communications with you.  Following your original phone calls and letters to us we had discovered some anomalies in our fare structure.  This affected a few fares where connecting train operators were involved.

As a result, we have had twenty incidents of customers being charged incorrect fares.
These fares have now been corrected and if the customers contact us we will reimburse them. Regrettably as these purchases were made at stations we do not have the customers details to contact directly.  We have also made the Telegraph aware of these fare anomalies and our efforts to correct the fault.

If you have purchased an incorrectly priced ticket please send it to us in customer relations and we will reimburse you for the difference in fares.

Thank you for giving us the opportunity to address this matter once again.

Yours sincerely

VIC SAVILLE
Team Leader

TWENTY incidents?!? I spoke to ten people on trains myself! Don’t tell me only 20 people went from the south to Wales (or any other combination of XC > non-XC) on advance tickets in that time!

And in spite of the above, there’s nothing on the Cross Country Trains or ATOC press release site, and nothing I can find in the Telegraph. There’s a mention of the Passenger Focus statement, though:

Passenger Focus is lobbying Virgin Trains, Cross Country and National Express following changes in ticket use restrictions in some parts of the country.

(click link above to read the rest)

Here’s the story in the Sunday Telegraph

UPDATE – 29th July 2008

2 months to not read my letter properly! My point was that the fare had gone from £12 to £21, then after MANY hours of calling and harrasment, XC admitted a mistake and the £21 become £17.50. But I also pointed out that I now have to book A>B B>C to get the price of the old A>C fare, otherwise it’s about £15 more! I also pointed out what a general nightmare the whole simplification thing was, and could we please have the old system back as I don’t really want to pay nearly £1000 more a year for the new system. This was their reply:

Another update – I now have a reply from passenger focus.

Thank you for your complaint with Cross Country which we received in this office on 3 June. I have now had the opportunity to review your complaint.

I understand you are unhappy about the availability of the Value Advance fares on a number of your routes. I can understand your frustration as these fares do represent great value for money if you’re able to get them.

With the advance fares, there is limited quota on some services and they are not a guaranteed fare. I’m aware that the quota does change depending on whether the service is busy and whether it’s a peak time service or not. If it is a busy service, they are unlikely to offer advance fares as this could cause further problems like overcrowding.

Because the train companies advertise these fares as ’subject to availability’ there are no ground in which we can enforce them to make more available. However, we are very much aware of the importance of these fares to passengers and the benefits they bring, considering the cost of a standard fare.

I would like to clarify that these fare increases are not due to the simplification of the fares. The train companies were due to review their fares and they have done this at the same time of the simplification. We did ask them not to do this as we knew it would cause confusion and discredit the whole simplification of fares process, which is something we have long campaigned for.

Thank you for your comments and I hope I have clarified our position on this.

Is that a toothless watchdog or what?!

Link update: This has been picked up by MoneySavingExpert at last.
Here’s the main thread. Here’s another forum thread.

Other media articles: The Independent The Sunday Mirror
Other forums discussing this:
The RailUK Forum [1] [2] [3]
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