Flexible season ticket review and policy

[Snow1964]

New from DfT

They buried this at bottom, but looks important as affects future rail fares

The study outputs will be used to inform future rail fares, ticketing and retail policies, as well as inform the Department for Transport’s future approaches to evaluation in these areas.

Evaluation of flexible season ticket

Independent impact evaluation of the flexible season rail ticket, which was introduced in June 2021 on all major commuter routes in England.

This report was commissioned to understand if the introduction of the flexible season ticket:

• supports new and emerging travel patterns as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic
• encourages additional demand as travel patterns settle post-pandemic
• has retained customers that otherwise would have been lost due to the pandemic
• is well-perceived and used by different demographics, with a particular focus on accessibility and affordability
• can be made more relevant to less frequent commuters

The uptake trajectory of the ticket and what encourages it, including other products used in conjunction with it, were also evaluated.

Evaluation of the flexible season rail ticket

Impact evaluation of the flexible season rail ticket introduced in 2021.

www.gov.uk

 

[Fawkes Cat]

The conclusion of the executive summary:

The Flexible Season Ticket appears to be meeting the needs of many rail passengers travelling between two and four days a week, and is viewed positively amongst this cohort of rail passengers. Raising awareness of the product; raising awareness that there is no limit to the number of tickets that can be purchased; making refunds more easily accessible; and consideration of modifications to enable more flexible use, are all likely to encourage further uptake.

 

[Haywain]

They didn't look at the pricing then?

 

[Bletchleyite]

They didn't look at the pricing then?

That's the main issue. I've not yet come across a medium distance case (so avoiding minimum fare) where single in, Railcard single back wasn't cheaper.

To me the price point needs to be 1/5 of the weekly season per day. Or just forget the idea and drop the Anytime Day Return to that.

 

[ainsworth74]

They didn't look at the pricing then?

Pricing is a big thing I think (the discount still feel stingy compared to carnets of old on someone like GTR) but I also feel like the 28 day cap is a bit of a frustration as well and could with being a bit longer. There's been a couple of times when I've nearly bought one as I might have a few weeks where a weekly doesn't make sense but I can't use all eight days of a flexi-season within the 28 days.

For instance week 1 I might use two days, week 2 a weekly season makes sense so use no days on the flexi season, week 3 I might use three days, week 4 two more days but then I'm out of time and so have wasted a day. If it was valid for say three months that would make it a lot more attractive to me. Even two months would probably cause me to buy them.

 

[jon81uk]

Pricing is a big thing I think (the discount still feel stingy compared to carnets of old on someone like GTR) but I also feel like the 28 day cap is a bit of a frustration as well and could with being a bit longer. There's been a couple of times when I've nearly bought one as I might have a few weeks where a weekly doesn't make sense but I can't use all eight days of a flexi-season within the 28 days.

For instance week 1 I might use two days, week 2 a weekly season makes sense so use no days on the flexi season, week 3 I might use three days, week 4 two more days but then I'm out of time and so have wasted a day. If it was valid for say three months that would make it a lot more attractive to me. Even two months would probably cause me to buy them.

Yep, I work in the office two days a week and the inflexibility of the 28 day limit together with the fact the saving is about equivilant to buy 7.5 and get 0.5 free means its not worth it as if I don't use one ticket I've lost money or have to faff trying to get a refund. Even just buy seven and get the eighth free would be more useful as there is no loss if you do only use seven.

Although for my journey the weekly ticket is a bad price anyway.

 

[MalaiseForever]

Thankfully they are eligible for the Network Rail 75% season ticket subsidy, so they're a great cheap way for me to get around to various different offices. But I agree for the general public they are nothing ground breaking value wise.