We are told, rightly or wrongly, that leisure travel is back to or above pre-Covid levels, whereas commuter travel remains lower. Wouldn't effectively abolishing cheap day returns and the like penalize the leisure traveller, whilst if the whole thing was revenue neutral help the commuter? Is that the aim?
Note too we need to be careful as to what revenue neutral means. If it is with today's travelling pattern, it won't be with tomorrows. Firstly, people change behaviour due to the cost, and over many years and many different companies, the structure of cheaper returns at certain periods has been considered to maximize revenue. Secondly, on the other hand, if it works as proponents claim, it should raise revenue with more journeys.