2025 fares from 2 March 2025 now in journey planners

[JonathanH]

As expected, journey planners are now (from this morning) showing fares from 2 March 2025 reflecting the increase on that date.

The current fare structure at GTR stations getting Contactless later this year seems to have survived next month's fare increase, so I think we can assume that the Project Oval extension is towards the end of the year, but there is something like a 10.8% increase in the weekend super off peak day return fares from 2 March.

Can you elaborate on this ?

One observation is that GTR have increased the price of their weekend super off-peak day returns by more than the standard 4.6% based on July 2024 RPI plus 1%.

Examples include
Potters Bar to London Terminals, currently £8.60, becomes £9.50 (10.5%)
Stevenage to London Terminals, currently £14.60, becomes £16.20 (11.0%)
Cambridge to London Terminals, currently £21.90, becomes £24.30 (11.0%)
Bedford to London Thameslink, currently £19.00, becomes £21.10 (11.1%)
Brighton to London Terminals (Thameslink only), currently £15.50, becomes £17.50 (12.9%)

The normal off-peak tickets appear to increase by around 4.6%. On these routes, it appears to be the weekend tickets which have been selected for a special realignment, which I guess isn't surprising given that the weekend market is buoyant.

As ever, make the most of something that offers good value, as it may not always exist.

 

[HughT]

"Cambridge to London Terminals, currently £21.90, becomes £24.30 (11.0%)"

Fortunately, Greater Anglia provide some competition from Cambridge, and their weekend super off peak return rises by only 5% (from £18 to £18.90). Other places don't have this choice, of course...

 

[stadler]

Does anyone know if BR Fares will be updated before the fare change? Or does that site wait until the fares actually change? There is a drop down box where you can select date ranges so i thought the new dates would be there but it seems not. You can only select current or past fares.

 

[arb]

"Cambridge to London Terminals, currently £21.90, becomes £24.30 (11.0%)"

Fortunately, Greater Anglia provide some competition from Cambridge, and their weekend super off peak return rises by only 5% (from £18 to £18.90). Other places don't have this choice, of course...

Although Greater Anglia already made some fare rises on those weekend tickets a few months ago, which when combined with their price rices now give a total rise of just over 10% for the year.

e.g. the Cambridge to London Terminals GA only ticket went up 5.9% from £17 to £18 in September, which gives a combined rise of 11.2% for the year.

With a travelcard included the GA only ticket went up 12.4% in September from £21.70 to £24.40, but this price now appears to be unchanged in March.

 

[MrJeeves]

Does anyone know if BR Fares will be updated before the fare change? Or does that site wait until the fares actually change? There is a drop down box where you can select date ranges so i thought the new dates would be there but it seems not. You can only select current or past fares.

Typically it will, yes, but needs to be manually added to the dropdown list. I'm sure it'll happen closer to the time.

One observation is that GTR have increased the price of their weekend super off-peak day returns by more than the standard 4.6% based on July 2024 RPI plus 1%.

My Travelcard will be up 12.4% at weekends, and 5.3% on weekdays...

One wonders where they're decreasing fares/increasing by less than RPI+1% to offset these huge hikes to meet the overall RPI+1%, or whether they have been exempted from that rule.

 

[Watershed]

One wonders where they're decreasing fares/increasing by less than RPI+1% to offset these huge hikes to meet the overall RPI+1%, or whether they have been exempted from that rule.

The fares that have gone up substantially are unregulated fares, and the concept of the 'fares basket' was abolished over a decade ago.

In any event, with all of the franchised TOCs now being under management contracts, the concept of a 'regulated' fare is somewhat nugatory. These changes need to be challenged politically at the end of the day.

 

[MrJeeves]

The fares that have gone up substantially are unregulated fares, and the concept of the 'fares basket' was abolished over a decade ago.

Ah yes, the Travelcard seasons are regulated, but the Day Travelcards aren't!

 

[MikeWM]

So an 11% increase in a weekend Travelcard from Ely... Given there has been disruption on Ely-London almost every weekend for the last 5 years (Cambridge South construction, Cambridge resignalling, strikes, covid, GN driver shortages) that feels to me more than a little bit rude.

Still, won't affect me as much as it would have done 5 years ago. This continual disruption has totally broken my habit of travelling to London most weekends, and these increases aren't exactly likely to attract me back.

 

[redreni]

Typically it will, yes, but needs to be manually added to the dropdown list. I'm sure it'll happen closer to the time.


My Travelcard will be up 12.4% at weekends, and 5.3% on weekdays...

One wonders where they're decreasing fares/increasing by less than RPI+1% to offset these huge hikes to meet the overall RPI+1%, or whether they have been exempted from that rule.

The fares that have gone up substantially are unregulated fares, and the concept of the 'fares basket' was abolished over a decade ago.

In any event, with all of the franchised TOCs now being under management contracts, the concept of a 'regulated' fare is somewhat nugatory. These changes need to be challenged politically at the end of the day.

Yeah, politically though it's difficult when the picture is so complicated. Nobody knows by what percentage long distance Advances have gone up over any relevant, recent timeframe because the fares are very variable and one can only really only give examples. And even on what should be a fairly straightforward round of inflation-based uprating of walk-up fares, lack of regulation allows bigger hikes to be smuggled in, and nobody seems to know what the average is.

So it's not quite like the chocolate ration in Orwell's 1984: it's much more opaque than that. So you can't easily get a reporter to report that fares have gone up by X% more than inflation because there's no robust, verifiable value for X. Yet that kind of reporting would be an important part of building pressure on DfT to make sure public transport fares are reasonable and, wherever possible, attractive compared to driving on your own. In my view it doesn't help when people like the Campaign for Better Transport just trot out the line that structural reform is needed, which may be a good tactic if there were any prospect of fares being levelled down and subsidy increased to pay for it. What we need is, as you say, a political commitment from government that fares are to be made cheaper.

The fare I buy for commuting (7 day inboundary Travelcard) is regulated and will rise by 4.6%. The one I buy most often for leisure travel (inboundary day travelcard with Network Railcard) will go up 5.8% (though the extension from there to Maidenhead will only go up 4%, with the combination of the two going up 5.22%). I would consider we'd done very well indeed if my union managed to negotiate a pay award in line with even the lowest of those figures!

 

[infobleep]

One of the tickets I buy has gone up from £16.05 to £16.75. That is with a Network Railcard. 4.4% is the percentage rise
..

Another I also sometimes buy has risen by 20p. That's 4.1% increase.

 

[Haywain]

One of the tickets I buy has gone up from £16.05 to £16.75. That is with a Network Railcard. 4.4% is the percentage rise

That is pretty much bang on the expected 4.6%, so nothing surprising.

 

[infobleep]

That is pretty much bang on the expected 4.6%, so nothing surprising.

Which from my point of view is good.

 

[Sonic1234]

In previous years, the new fares were hidden until the day of the fare rise. You could buy at the old price prior to that, even if you were travelling after the date of the fare increase. Is this not the case this year?

 

[Edvid]

It appears to be a reversion to pre-pandemic practice. The hiding of new fares until their implementation was a recent change.

 

[JonathanH]

In my view it doesn't help when people like the Campaign for Better Transport just trot out the line that structural reform is needed, which may be a good tactic if there were any prospect of fares being levelled down and subsidy increased to pay for it.

The increase in weekend fares on GTR cited above would appear to be all about structural reform, in getting people ready for the eventual withdrawal of these cheaper fares, or in mitigating the headlines when the single fares for Project Oval are set at half the current off-peak day return fares (or indeed at a higher rate).

These weekend fares were first introduced in First Capital Connect days, I think as a fairly explicit 20% reduction to the off-peak day return. As a result, a railcard makes them approximately half of the undiscounted off-peak day return cost.

This results in the generally anticipated Project Oval undiscounted off-peak single fare working out broadly the same as a discounted super off peak day return. That is a long way to move in one step.

 

[CyrusWuff]

It appears to be a reversion to pre-pandemic practice. The hiding of new fares until their implementation was a recent change.

Yup. The level of the 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024 increases was announced too late for there to be an advance sales period, whereas this year's increase was announced as part of the Autumn budget back in October.

 

[splashoutradio]

Whilst nowhere near as good or detailed as BRFares, RailwayData will show new fares when searching for a date in April. Hope to have the updated fare manuals, ticket types & restriction files up in the next day or two.

 

[Paul Kelly]

Does anyone know if BR Fares will be updated before the fare change?

I did not know the old 4-week rule was applying to the quote date this year. Will update.

 

[Skimpot flyer]

Yup. The level of the 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024 increases was announced too late for there to be an advance sales period, whereas this year's increase was announced as part of the Autumn budget back in October.

So I can’t buy tickets ahead of time, for journeys I’ll be making in March, at today’s pre-increase prices?

 

[JonathanH]

So I can’t buy tickets ahead of time, for journeys I’ll be making in March, at today’s pre-increase prices?

No, not since Sunday. You could have done on Saturday.

 

[Sonic1234]

No, not since Sunday. You could have done on Saturday.

Do Underground TVMs allow purchasing for a date in advance, and starting from a different station?

These often don't get updated until the summer!

 

[richardderby]

BRfares updated with the new higher fares from March 2nd...

Look up fares for any train journey in Britain

Full details of all British rail Single, Return & Season tickets and Travelcards. Built-in Season Ticket Calculator.

www.brfares.com

 

[yorkie]

On a related note, does anyone know when the next set of fares (NFM49) from 2nd March are going to expire? When does NFM50 start? The information I've seen just vaguely states "May 2025".

It would surely make more sense for the dates to be planned out further in advance than this.

So I can’t buy tickets ahead of time, for journeys I’ll be making in March, at today’s pre-increase prices?

No, not since Sunday. You could have done on Saturday.

Sometimes one or two retailers are slow to update; anyone know if that applies to any at the moment?

 

[CyrusWuff]

On a related note, does anyone know when the next set of fares (NFM49) from 2nd March are going to expire? When does NFM50 start? The information I've seen just vaguely states "May 2025".

March is NFM50. Dates for NFM51 (nominally May) and NFM52 (nominally September) have yet to be announced.

 

[Warlock]

Are the fares finalised? I have previously emailed Avanti about the lack of advance fares from Shawfair to various WCML stations (eg. Crewe) and stations in the Midlands (eg. Nottingham/Carlton), whilst Avanti &Connections fares exist from other Borders Railway stations (eg. Newcraighall/Eskbank).

Avanti customer service replied

The relevant staff has been notified, and this will be rectified in the next round of fare setting which takes place in March.

Just popped onto brfares and noticed that there are still no advance fares available. Should I wait for further updates or ask Avanti again?

Thx in advance for any help

(I've heard rumours that TOC fare staff monitors this forum, hoping someone notices the anomaly and rectifies it)

 

[CyrusWuff]

Are the fares finalised? I have previously emailed Avanti about the lack of advance fares from Shawfair to various WCML stations (eg. Crewe) and stations in the Midlands (eg. Nottingham/Carlton), whilst Avanti &Connections fares exist from other Borders Railway stations (eg. Newcraighall/Eskbank).

Fares were finalised in mid-January. Any changes now would have to be approved by the DfT.

 

[MrJeeves]

Fares were finalised in mid-January. Any changes now would have to be approved by the DfT.

Is this also the case for advances? I assumed a TOC would be able to implement and remove these as they please, including outside of FSRs.

 

[CyrusWuff]

Is this also the case for advances? I assumed a TOC would be able to implement and remove these as they please, including outside of FSRs.

My understanding is that any change outside of an FSR requires approval. Though it could just be a box ticking exercise for something that's not controversial, like correcting an obvious mistake.

 

[splashoutradio]

A few years ago (post-covid) I contacted Northern regarding a local journey that didn't have any weekly/season fares. They responded and a fortnight later, there were fares in the system - excellent customer service and very efficient! From memory, it wasn't around the usual NFM change dates, either.

 

[Skimpot flyer]

Do Underground TVMs allow purchasing for a date in advance, and starting from a different station?

These often don't get updated until the summer!

Just tried a TVM at Baker Street.

No joy on a National Rail fare I buy fairly regularly.
Still shows the new price (up 75p) for a journey on 4th March 2025