On Monday 21st June.Given these fares are on sale so soon....when are we going to find out how much they are going to cost?
It's going to be a ~10% discount on the SDR, i.e. a total waste of space on 99% of flows.Given these fares are on sale so soon....when are we going to find out how much they are going to cost?
It's going to be a ~10% discount on the SDR, i.e. a total waste of space on 99% of flows.
Still, it gets the government some positive column inches...
I am not so sure; I think the railway is lining up a spectacular shot at its own goal. As you have said it’s a total waste of space on most flows.It's going to be a ~10% discount on the SDR, i.e. a total waste of space on 99% of flows.
Still, it gets the government some positive column inches...
If that's true, I can help but feel it'll be a PR own goal for the industry if punters find out it's not the magic bullet they'd imagined (as I'd always feared)
Personally it wouldn't be so bad, if there was a more generous time limit for usage than 28 days.
That may be so, but the pricing for longer distance seasons is inevitably very difficult. There are many where the price of a monthly season will be significantly less than 8 SDR/SHR/SOR fares, even with a 10% discount. In such cases the season should really be seen as the flexi fare.Didcot Parkway to London Terminals for example is £532.30 a month. 8 SDRs is £562.40, so 10% less or £506.20 for the flexi ticket. Give up 23 days travel and save £26.10. That’s not going to get positive column inches
I agree that the flexibility is rather (too?) limited. I would have suggested 5 days travel within 28 days or a month but priced the same as a 7-day season - for most people that would have been the same amount of travel either way, and they could just renew as necessary (as they will with the flexi season anyway).An actually good deal would be something like buying 30 day tickets (or 60 singles) valid 12 months at (weekly season / 7) * 30. The plans aren't even flexible enough.
Still not going to sound good to those people who have been told by the industry and the media that they will soon be able to get a flexi season ticket that will save them money on their existing season ticket if they only need to travel half the week.That may be so, but the pricing for longer distance seasons is inevitably very difficult. There are many where the price of a monthly season will be significantly less than 8 SDR/SHR/SOR fares, even with a 10% discount. In such cases the season should really be seen as the flexi fare.
I agree that the flexibility is rather (too?) limited. I would have suggested 5 days travel within 28 days or a month but priced the same as a 7-day season - for most people that would have been the same amount of travel either way, and they could just renew as necessary (as they will with the flexi season anyway).
From SWR (I'm going to guess the others are the same)I guess we should be careful what we wish for, sorry if this is covered elsewhere, but do any operators plan to kill of the Carnet as a result of this?
Why have you withdrawn the Carnet product?
Flexi Season is a new national product with a standard offering for all customers. As a result of this, Carnet will be withdrawn from sale when Flexi Season becomes available. If you still have valid Carnet tickets on your smartcard, you can continue to use them until they expire.
Hmm I will see what happens with GN - but that would be a interesting way to recover some revenue. (The Carnet probably was a little too good to be true as you could mix peak / off-peak tickets so I will put that into the I enjoyed it while it lasted). If it does go on GN I won't miss the faf you had with them.From SWR (I'm going to guess the others are the same)
Given these fares are on sale so soon....when are we going to find out how much they are going to cost?
Is this usual practice - to only announce what a fare will be on the day it goes on sale?On Monday 21st June.
Normal practice is for bulk fare changes only to take place in January, May and September and for the revised fares to appear in retail systems four weeks before they come into effect.Is this usual practice - to only announce what a fare will be on the day it goes on sale?
This is true, but this one isn't a fare change.Where fares are changed outside the normal fares rounds -
Hmm I will see what happens with GN - but that would be a interesting way to recover some revenue. (The Carnet probably was a little too good to be true as you could mix peak / off-peak tickets so I will put that into the I enjoyed it while it lasted). If it does go on GN I won't miss the faf you had with them.
EMR is the same.From SWR (I'm going to guess the others are the same)
Although they are due to go on sale from 21 June, their validity is for journeys from 28 June, so there is a one week gap.Is this usual practice - to only announce what a fare will be on the day it goes on sale?
If so, it doesn't strike me a as a particularly good one. If everything had gone to plan, the target market would have been returning to their commutes on 21 June - so it would seem that they would on that Monday morning have had to have decided whether a flexible season was the ticket that they wanted.
As it turns out, the target market have an extra four weeks to think about whether this is the ticket they want, but that seems to be a triumph of luck over design.
I suspect you are right. We had a good value ticket. Too good. Nothing that good last forever.GTR wanted to put carnets on smartcards for years to reduce fraudulent use, but the DfT refused apparently. As such, given the desire by the railway to get people using smartcards or barcode tickets now, my guess is the carnet will be scrapped.
Definitely - it can be argued that they are effectively the same thing? I can't think of any incidences when you know what price a fare is going to be before you can buy it?Is this usual practice - to only announce what a fare will be on the day it goes on sale?
This is a good point against my argument.Although they are due to go on sale from 21 June, their validity is for journeys from 28 June, so there is a one week gap.
National Rail Enquiries have a page with a useful calculator, including cost per day for specific numbers of journeys per week / durations - looks like Flexis should appear there tomorrowDoes anyone know at what time tomorrow we will be able to find out the prices of these Flexi tickets, please? And how? I assume BRfares and ticket selling websites in the normal way?
Many thanks