Ticketing and Concessionary Travel on Public Transport - United ...

Ev 122 Transport Committee: Evidence
21. To ensure that a more joined up ticketing system is rolled out in the UK, the Government needs to
have a much clearer strategy in place—<strong>and</strong> then ensure that it maximises opportunities such as franchise
negotiations to challenge transport operators to improve <strong>and</strong> upgrade ticketing arrangements <strong>and</strong> systems.
22. The Government also needs to review its approach to the availability of data. This is a key issue <strong>and</strong>
we suggest that the licensing of public transport services should also include obligations that make timetable,
routing <strong>and</strong> fares information directly available to the public <strong>and</strong> indirectly available though other carriers
<strong>and</strong> ticket retailers in the transport industry.
23. We would be happy to explain our views in more detail should the committee wish.
March 2007
Further memor<strong>and</strong>um from the Trainline.com Ltd (TPT 18a)
Inquiry into <strong>Ticketing</strong> on Public Transport
As you may be aware, the Trainline.com is one of the key outlets for online ticket sales, both through our
own website www.thetrainline.com <strong>and</strong> the “white label” sites we provide for many of the major TOCs. We
submitted the attached evidence to the committee in respect of your inquiry into ticketing on public
transport <strong>and</strong> have been following the evidence sessions with interest.
Since we submitted our evidence, there have been two significant developments at the Trainline in relation
to smartcard technology which we are now in a position to share <strong>and</strong> hope will be of interest as you reflect
on the recent evidence given to the Transport Select Committee. These were briefly flagged by your colleague
Clive EVord MP at the session on 12 December <strong>and</strong> I have set them out in further detail below so you have
the full picture.
Firstly, we are confident that our innovative smartcard software, developed from one of our oYces based
in Scotl<strong>and</strong>, would allow us to operate the full compliant ITSO system on the same physical smartcard as
the full London Oyster system without making any amendments at all to the existing gates <strong>and</strong> systems.
Clearly to take this forward in practice would require the agreement of TfL <strong>and</strong> Transys, but we believe this
approach could not only deliver substantial financial savings to Government <strong>and</strong> the rail industry, but also
oVer the UK rail customer the opportunity to have both functionalities on one card without risk that they
are going to technically conflict. This project is moving very quickly so I would welcome the opportunity to
meet with you in the New Year <strong>and</strong> provide a further update on our proposals.
The second point I wanted to highlight relates to the availability of online fare to the public. You may
recall that Clive EVord MP highlighted the little-known derogation within the existing rail legislation <strong>and</strong>
its implementation through the <strong>Ticketing</strong> <strong>and</strong> Settlement Agreement which allows Train Operators to only
oVer certain tickets through restricted channels, for example their own websites. This derogation has the
eVect of distorting the market as far as the customer is concerned, because in order to be able to buy the
cheapest tickets, the customer would have to visit every website or call multiple call centres, contrary to the
widely available access <strong>and</strong> fare simplicity intended in the Rail White Paper—we are implementing the
indsutry fare-simplification changes from May 2008.
For example, take the journey from York to Portsmouth. It is possible to buy tickets at several prices
online for this journey, but for a discounted NXEC-only ticket for York to London, the customer can only
buy from NXEC’s website because it uses the DfT derogation to ensure that it cannot be sold elsewhere.
Similarly, for a “Megatrain” ticket on the service from London to Portsmouth, the customer can only buy
this from the Stagecoach SouthWest website. This situation will get significantly worse as smart ticketing is
introduced because, in our view, TOCs will use this derogation over a wider range of tickets.
In our view, an impartial national retailer (such as Trainline) should have access to all train operating
companies fares, providing a one-stop shop for a customer to simply <strong>and</strong> easily purchase the cheapest ticket
for their entire journey from their favourite retailer.
We are of course also in the process of briefing the Department for Transport on our plans, <strong>and</strong> given
that your committee will also be considering the Rail White Paper in the New Year, I would very much
welcome the opportunity to meet with you <strong>and</strong> brief you further. To this end I will if I may, get in touch
with your oYce in the New Year to see if it is possible to arrange a meeting with you in January.
Jeremy Acklam
The Trainline
21 December 2007