[News] Return train tickets to be scrapped ?

[Springal]

Return rail tickets to be scrapped

Major reform set as Transport Secretary also commits to Boris Johnson's Great British Railways, a new public body

www.telegraph.co.uk

Surely not ? Or if so then needs a big reform on pricing?

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

I asked for a return ticket at Brighton station last week. The ticket person asked where to? I said back here!

 

[KZNSeagull]

I asked for a return ticket at Brighton station last week. The ticket person asked where to? I said back here!

 

[Guinness Boy]

I asked for a return ticket at Brighton station last week. The ticket person asked where to? I said back here!

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Tough crowd tonight

 

[pure_white]

If train travel collapses the number of cars on the rd will spiral outta control.

 

[Bodian]

"The two-way tickets, which offer a discounted rate, will be replaced by “single-leg pricing” which will mean that the price of two singles will be the same as the current return fare"

If this is true, then it's surely a benefit - as single tickets will be cheaper than they currently are?

 

[Questions]

I asked for a return ticket at Brighton station last week. The ticket person asked where to? I said back here!

Do you know ? I bloody loved the 70’s.

 

[beorhthelm]

reading the article this sounds like semantics, doing something which looks controversial to get noticed. you'll ask for a return and be given two tickets exactly the same as now. the real difference will be singles being genuinely half price.

would be concerned about losing card tickets, they are known, reliable, easier than having to get your phone out (turn on phone, swipe, unlock, select app, show QR, change angle, move closer, no further away, ah thats read it), dont rely on smart phone ownership.

 

[dsr-burnley]

reading the article this sounds like semantics, doing something which looks controversial to get noticed. you'll ask for a return and be given two tickets exactly the same as now. the real difference will be singles being genuinely half price.

would be concerned about losing card tickets, they are known, reliable, easier than having to get your phone out (turn on phone, swipe, unlock, select app, show QR, change angle, move closer, no further away, ah thats read it), dont rely on smart phone ownership.

Why would they abolish them anyway? It makes no sense. It's just as easy to print a QR code as to send it electronically. It makes no business sense to put obstacles in the way of even 10% of your customers.

 

[clapham_gull]

As someone who travels frequently between London and Sussex at odd hours, ticketing is a complex farce and rip off.

Quite why I get charge peak fares from London to Sussex during "rush hour" when there are far far more people on the train "off peak" is ludicrous. I'm often the only one to get off at the station.

Another oddity is the return is such circumstances. You are technically required to travel on a designated train back or have to pay more to travel on any train.

If I travel off peak down I can do what I like on way back with. Why should I be restricted about the time on my return because of the time of my original journey ?

Recently I bought a ticket online and (because we are in the 1970s) I still am required to print it at the station.

The machine didn't accept the code and there no one on the train to print it for me. When I got to London the barriers were open.

I received an last email saying since I didn't collect the ticket I was due a 50% refund and they deposited to my account.

 

[clapham_gull]

Speaking to a guard on the train recently, he told me that allow commuting is still down leisure travel is up with some new odd peaks at weekend.

Surprising numbers travelling UP to London at the weekend.

Just to reiterate above it's bonkers that you get charged "peak" on the London to Hasting line before 10, when there is often just a man and a dog on the train.

I pay extra to travel on trains with nobody on them. It's indefensible.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Why would they abolish them anyway? It makes no sense. It's just as easy to print a QR code as to send it electronically. It makes no business sense to put obstacles in the way of even 10% of your customers.

Many things on the railways make zero sense but they still do them.

 

[pasty]

What they really need to address is the ridiculousness of season tickets. I commute to London 3 days a week, and it is still cheaper to buy a weekly ticket than 3 daily tickets.

Utter madness that the cheapest way to travel is to buy something I don’t use 57% of.