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

Transport Committee: Evidence Ev 189
Chris Juden, CTC Technical OYcer—possibly typical of those who used to enjoy optional use of oV-peak
trains—has had, after half a century, to finally buy a car, <strong>and</strong> reckons this is linked to the withdrawal of
around £1,000/year per rider of optional ticket sales from an increasing population of fit, retired riders who
have the flexibility to catch oV-peak trains, if only the system would accommodate them by guaranteeing
their journey itinerary.
The system also generates a huge pile of tickets—sometimes of all shapes & sizes, one member sent in
details of the 16 tickets required for a journey the length of the UK.
Rail—Failure to Offer all Relevant Fares <strong>and</strong> Routes
The template for National Rail has options for cheapest fare <strong>and</strong> general but NOT all fares available. As
examples of how the poor algorithms <strong>and</strong> lack of easy access to timetables as published in the printed all
stations timetable (book—<strong>and</strong> well secreted on-line pdf down-loadable pages on Network Rail website)
there are often routes <strong>and</strong> fares revealed only when the purchaser knows how to force the system to sell them.
Example Glasgow to Leeds—absolute cheapest fare—Virgin Value Glasgow to Carlisle <strong>and</strong> then second
fare Carlisle to Leeds via Edinburgh (7 hours!) other fares oVered (saver at approximately £70) but the low
cost fare (approximately £37) via Appleby on shortest route with shortest journey times (but poor
connections) only appears when you force a via Appleby option.
Example Glasgow to Gatwick—Use of the now to be dropped Cross Country services to Gatwick <strong>and</strong>
Brighton avoiding London would probably have been higher if the service had actually been oVered to
enquirers—even trying simple nudges like travel via Reading failed to break the lock-out (route suggested
was back to Paddington <strong>and</strong> cross to Victoria, despite direct trains from Reading Plats 1–4a. For the
journey—passing through London on a weekday between 16.00 hours <strong>and</strong> 17.00 hours with two 5-year old
children, a pensioner <strong>and</strong> luggage for a 4-week holiday was something to avoid, with a lot of testing <strong>and</strong>
trying to fool the system it eventually coughed up the journey wanted <strong>and</strong> allowed the tickets to be booked
with the seat reservations.
The algorithms are also apt to oVer ridiculous solutions. A couple returning from Wick to Wilmslow
contacted CTC over the 37 hour suggested trip with several changes of train <strong>and</strong> long waits, when the
journey could be done with just three trains in around 12 hours, <strong>and</strong> one long wait, <strong>and</strong> train could be cut
out by cycling from Crewe to Wilmslow when the overnight train from Inverness arrived, another couple
were not advised to use the “rival” South Western main line from Exeter when the bad route oVered from
Penzance to Bournemouth—via Bristol! was disrupted <strong>and</strong> they were left to hire a car to get home, when a
shorter journey option was to either catch trains to get to Southampton via Salisbury or Basingstoke, or to
use their cycle to ride between stations at Yeovil, or Yeovil Junction to Dorchester South—after all they
had just ridden over 800 miles to Penzance, <strong>and</strong> would surely be up to such a short connecting ride.
The disappearance of the All Stations printed timetable will reduce the ability to find these options, <strong>and</strong>
we really need to have access to the ability to construct our own travel itineraries, either by having this
timetable fully downloadable, or available for on-line access.
A Way Forward—Make the Local Station Part of Call Centre Network <strong>and</strong> Extend Opening
Hours
One cycling holiday organiser, now sadly dead, used to book all his tickets with Fort William Station,
<strong>and</strong> in doing so, a) boosted income for the station b) employed staV during idle periods between trains—
helping to keep the booking oYce open <strong>and</strong> pay for staYng. He in turn got excellent service, from staV well
versed in railway geography <strong>and</strong> best fares available.
With the ability to run a single call centre desk at any location, it would make a highly sensible move to
use the highly experienced staV at many stations who work just a half-shift, selling tickets <strong>and</strong> providing
information at a small local station. They would be switched in to the call centre when the dem<strong>and</strong> for
immediate service on the station itself had abated, <strong>and</strong> then take call centre enquiries <strong>and</strong> ticket sales, with
local counter activity taking the next place in the call queue. There are many wins here—call centre staV with
accurate <strong>and</strong> close-up railway knowledge, local stations with staV presence to sell tickets <strong>and</strong> provide a
facility than no CCTV system can. This might be introduced as a pilot scheme with a couple of operators
on a couple of lines that have a large number of limited hours opening stations, or a high community rail
input, the system could than be fine tuned <strong>and</strong> tested to establish the stations where the idea works to
best eVect.
March 2007