UK: Pubs to sell train tickets

[John Ashworth]

Mine's a return! Pubs to sell train tickets in shake-up of rail fares

By RAY MASSEY
PUBLISHED: 20:42 GMT, 8 March 2012 | UPDATED: 21:07 GMT, 8 March 2012
Daily Mail

Pubs and libraries could soon sell train tickets as part of a shake-up in the way millions of passengers pay fares that are set to soar on the busiest trains, Transport Secretary Justine Greening revealed today.

But those prepared to travel at less popular times will benefit from lower prices as part of a strategy to 'smooth demand' for train services.

A switch to airline style pricing would end the annual round of across the board 'inflation-busting fare rises' rises which millions hard-pressed commuters currently endure.

This would also be achieved by cutting costs across the railway industry to reduce waste of up to £3.5billion a year on the railways to liberate cash that will keep costs and fares down.

Sounding the death-knell for what her aides called the ‘bog-standard’ rail ticket, the Transport Secretary accepted some fares would rise at peak times, but that more importantly fares at off-peak times would fall so that the peaks and troughs of demand could be smoothed out.

The aim was to end the situation where passengers were letting expensive but empty trains leave the platform while they waited for the massively overcrowded cheaper train.

Miss Greening said: 'It's time to bring fares out of the 1970s and into the 21st century.

'We will move to a more transparent, modern and flexible approach to fares and ticketing.'

The Daily Mail revealed details today of the Government’s rail fares revolution which were confirmed in a 117-page review of rail fares and ticketing published by Miss Greening and put out to consultation.

It accepted that hiking fares on the busiest trains on which many commuters working 9 to 5 had no choice but to use to get to work was ‘an extremely sensitive area.’

Setting out how the fares shake-up could be achieved, it describes how demand is high during peak periods but drops off at off-peak periods: ‘If commuter demand could be 'smoothed' even within the 7am-10am and 4pm-7pm windows, this would enable capacity to be used more effectively and could allow more people to travel by rail overall.’

Currently the threshold at which peak-fares become off-peak creates a ‘cliff edge’ drop in fares, creating perverse anomalies. It can lead to an earlier more expensive train departing empty while potential passengers wait on the platform for the later but cheaper train which leaves massively overcrowded and heaving with people.

For example, the cheapest peak-time single Virgin Trains’ on the 18.40 from London Euston to Birmingham cost £79. But the next train – the first off-peak 19.03 referred to – is just £46.

Similarly, train fares from Euston to Manchester drop by more than half after 18.44 when the off-peak fares kick in. An anytime single on the 18.40 costs £148, while an off-peak single on the 18.57 drops to £73.

As well as hi-tech ‘smart’ electronic tickets, ministers say they are looking at more traditional ideas to sell tickets in shops, libraries, post offices and even pubs.

The rail reform dossier notes: ‘Passengers might also value the convenience of being able to buy tickets from local shops or post offices.’

Conservative MP Gavin Williamson MP (Cons) later asked the transport secretary in the Commons if she would consider letting pubs – such as the Station Pub in his local station at Cosall which replaced the ticket office - sell tickets.

Miss Greening gave her enthusiastic support to the idea saying: ‘That sounds like that could well be a good idea that his local community may want to take forward.’

The report said: ‘We need to look seriously at the possibility of rewarding passengers who do not travel on the most crowed trains, and asking those passengers who drive the need for capacity enhancements by travelling a the busiest times to pay more.

It added that any changes to prices would have to be ‘balanced and fair so that rail travel remains affordable.’

Passenger Focus Anthony Smith feared it could become ‘a rich man’s railway’ noting: ‘Let's try to tempt passengers away from peak-time travel, rather than penalise them for doing so.’

Labour, transport unions and passenger groups immediately expressed concern at any possible fare rises and also at proposals that could see hundreds of ticket offices closed and thousands of rail jobs axed.