Yes, they are for all intents and purposes daily season tickets, including the ability to break your journey, make unlimited journeys, and as you say, do non-stop splits.
It's an interesting question. It would certainly be valid but managing it could be a challenge. Let us know how you get on.
Given the 'big data' possibility of having season tickets on smart cards, is it likely that someone would draw attention to themselves if they never touched out at one end of the ticket's validity?
There is no need to touch in or out apart from to grant passage through a gateline. Provided you activate your ticket each day before you travel, you are not doing anything wrong.
We had a retail briefing yesterday about it. Yes, customers can use two flexi-seasons in combination and normal arrangements apply as with two regular season tickets. They do need to activate the second ticket via app prior to the first one expiring though, otherwise they would be liable for a Penalty Fare. The first one could have been activated by the gateline on entry or via the app.
Good question. I’d hope not, just to reduce the risk of accidental activation.
You should be able to activate it anywhere with the app.
Yes but I was referring to gate lines, validators and TVMs.
| annual season | flexi-season for 240 days | SDR*240 | annual season saving over SDR | flexi-season saving over SDR | |
| Blythe Bridge to Stoke-on-Trent | £ 660.00 | £ 888.00 | £ 960.00 | 31% | 8% |
| Blythe Bridge to Derby | £ 2,348.00 | £ 2,928.00 | £ 3,096.00 | 24% | 5% |
| Blythe Bridge to Nottingham | £ 3,072.00 | £ 3,648.00 | £ 3,840.00 | 20% | 5% |
| Blythe Bridge to Manchester | £ 3,716.00 | £ 4,752.00 | £ 5,064.00 | 27% | 6% |
| Blythe Bridge to Crewe | £ 2,100.00 | £ 2,688.00 | £ 2,832.00 | 26% | 5% |
| Blythe Bridge to Stafford | £ 1,964.00 | n/a | £ 2,520.00 | 22% | n/a |
| Blythe Bridge to Birmingham New Street | £ 4,572.00 | £ 7,752.00 | £ 8,856.00 | 48% | 12% |
Sure, but not everyone has a NFC-enabled smartphone. If you don't, I'm wondering if you could be left in a situation where you've bought a ticket but have had no opportunity to activate it before you met the RPI.
The percentage of passengers falling into that category, who also decide to get a Flexi Ticket, has got to be miniscule.
I think almost all stations in the South East now have either validators or gate lines with smart card readers. I'm not sure what the position is in the rest of the country
I had a look at some flows using the figures used for calculating "void day" refunds (which now only apply to Chiltern, since GWR moved to Delay Repay for season tickets from 1st April), namely assuming a Weekly was used for 5 days, a Monthly for 22 and an Annual for 260.
| SDR/SOR | Carnet | Saving | Flexi-Season | Saving | Monthly | Saving | Annual | Saving | |
| High Wycombe to London Terminals | £29.90 | £269.10 (10 Returns) | 10% | £209.60 | 12.4% | £371.80 | 43.5% | £3872.00 | 50.2% |
| Banbury to London Terminals | £86.90 | £782.10 (10 Returns) | 10% | £482.00 | 30.7% | £602.50 | 68.5% | £6276.00 | 72.2% |
| Ashford (Kent) to London Terminals via HS1 | £75.00 | N/A | N/A | £524.80 | 12.5% | £674.00 | 59.2% | £7020.00 | 64% |
| Cambridge to London Terminals | £45.60 | £102.00 (5 Singles) | 10.5% | £319.20 | 12.5% | £517.30 | 48.4% | £5388.00 | 54.6% |
yes, but even if you have a NFC enabled phone, I wonder if the already downloaded app needs a internet connection to a activate a smartcard, since that could be a issue on some line/station/network combinations.
These are artificial figures. Quite clearly, anyone travelling on 240 days a year would be daft to buy the flexi season or SDR (in any event, who goes to work on 240 days in a year?). It is therefore not realistic to use that basis to claim how much will be saved.
Define "South East". Ex-Southern Region, perhaps. Ex-Network SouthEast, no.
That's OK then
I was thinking more along the lines are there companies who have said no to this? I mean. Some companies don't allow e-ticketing between stations and that's even if you exclude TfL.
Perhaps they should be enabled in due course.
Is Leagrave to Woolwich Arsenal, not a niche product then, given the flexi-season exists?
Why is SE not involved? Would I be right in assuming ScotRail is under the control of the Scottish Government and they want to do their own thing?
I think you make a good point.
I don't even wish to buy it and I've not even been burnt. The month restriction is what is putting me off.
I don't see why there should be problems or confusion but if the app had to be written in a hurry it might not be perfect.
No they are entirely realistic. They are the published fares.
| SDR | daily rate | daily rate | daily rate | daily rate | |
| flexi 8, used 8 days | 7 day season, used 5 days | monthly season used 20 days | annual season used 240 days | ||
| Blythe Bridge to Stoke-on-Trent | £ 4.00 | £ 3.70 | £ 3.30 | £ 3.17 | £ 2.75 |
| Blythe Bridge to Derby | £ 12.90 | £ 12.20 | £ 11.74 | £ 11.28 | £ 9.78 |
| Blythe Bridge to Nottingham | £ 16.00 | £ 15.20 | £ 15.36 | £ 14.75 | £ 12.80 |
| Blythe Bridge to Manchester | £ 21.10 | £ 19.80 | £ 18.58 | £ 17.84 | £ 15.48 |
| Blythe Bridge to Crewe | £ 11.80 | £ 11.20 | £ 10.50 | £ 10.08 | £ 8.75 |
| Blythe Bridge to Stafford | £ 10.50 | £ - | £ 9.82 | £ 9.43 | £ 8.18 |
| Blythe Bridge to Birmingham New Street (SOR) | £ 36.90 | £ 32.30 | £ 22.86 | £ 21.95 | £ 19.05 |
The fare is set between the two and reflects both, but the season used is the 7-day season which is what most people buy.
I would argue that it has been massively over-sold and under-delivered. Both in terms of people's expectations of savings and in terms of availability eg all the fares not currently available (Scotland, TfW, TfL, TfScouseland en masse, other stations at random if not smart enabled).
What about SE?
Not sure who you mean by SE? South Eastern website shows Flexi Seasons.
