Rail fares too complex; low cost ticket system unfair: parliamentary committee report

[teuchter]

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200809/cmselect/cmpubacc/191/191.pdf

This is a report on the performance of the DfT since they took over from the strategic rail authority a few years ago.

I am pleased to see that one of their conclusions is that the existing fare system is too complex and that the supposed recent "simplification" has been a failure and essentially a sham, and that they make the important point about walk-up travellers being penalised.

6. It is unacceptable that low cost fares, which should be available to all rail
passengers, are most readily found by those with access to the Internet. This
approach undermines the whole basis of the railways as a public service available to
all. It excludes those people without access to the Internet, without the time to search
or who decide to travel at short notice. There is no reason why the Department
should favour a system which supports such perverse and unwarranted exclusion.

7. The Department must do much more to simplify fares. The Department has made
a start in simplifying fares, but some complex fares still exist and the best fares are
hard to find without access to the Internet. Fare structures should be simple, fares
should be accurately named, and the lowest priced fare for a journey should be
publicised and readily available at station ticket offices, as well as on the internet.

It would be nice, of course, if these recommendations translated into definitive action in real life some day.

Lots of other stuff in the report too, which I haven't had time to read yet.

 

[pengaleng]

man, since they fucked around with the fares it's done my fucking head in.

 

[moose]

I just can't be arsed using the train because it's so complicated and expensive. Every time I try to travel, I either give up in frustration or get fleeced at the ticket office.

My last attempt was when mr moose and I were travelling into Manchester together and he was going on elsewhere, both travelling home separately. I didn't ask for, or realise we had been sold, a ticket called a Northern Duo, which meant when it came to home time, neither of us could travel without the other! Had to buy more tickets.

 

[Crispy]

Well they're speaking truth and that's for sure. Can't say I've got much faith in DfT to actually do something that the TOCs might not like...