Illogical single fare pricing

[The exile]

Can anyone explain why the anytime single fare between two stations should be different depending on which direction you are travelling in? Not talking about peak / off peak differences - the cheaper of the two journeys ;Salfords to Gatwick, was made at peak time; the more expensive off peak. It’s only 10p but it seems completely unjustifiable.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

It’s only 10p but it seems completely unjustifiable.

Has for some time been the case in the London and the Home Counties area that certain journeys starting from an outer station towards Central London have been priced more expensively than a journey in the opposite direction. Reckon there'll be numerous examples where the fare difference is more than just a token 10p.

 

[Haywain]

Can anyone explain why the anytime single fare between two stations should be different depending on which direction you are travelling in? Not talking about peak / off peak differences - the cheaper of the two journeys ;Salfords to Gatwick, was made at peak time; the more expensive off peak. It’s only 10p but it seems completely unjustifiable.

It's about market forces, more people travel towards London so more can be charged. It's usually a trivial difference for singles, as you are seeing, but can be more noticeable for return fares at peak times. The logic is that those paying the cheaper fare are travelling against the peak flow.

 

[swt_passenger]

It's about market forces, more people travel towards London so more can be charged. It's usually a trivial difference for singles, as you are seeing, but can be more noticeable for return fares at peak times. The logic is that those paying the cheaper fare are travelling against the peak flow.

As an example, in the disputes forum last week, we were looking at Eastleigh to Waterloo and people were trying to work out exactly how SWR had come up with their figures. During the discussion it became clear the Anytime day return was about £90 starting from Eastleigh, but only about £45 if starting at Waterloo. I’d completely forgotten about the directional pricing…

 

[Bletchleyite]

Can anyone explain why the anytime single fare between two stations should be different depending on which direction you are travelling in? Not talking about peak / off peak differences - the cheaper of the two journeys ;Salfords to Gatwick, was made at peak time; the more expensive off peak. It’s only 10p but it seems completely unjustifiable.

It used to be to prevent people buying a single into London and a single back with Railcard/off peak single back and saving money. However Project Oval (contactless rollout) is slowly wiping it out, and I've not come across one for a bit, and so a single in and a Railcard single out is exactly what I do

 

[redreni]

It's about market forces, more people travel towards London so more can be charged. It's usually a trivial difference for singles, as you are seeing, but can be more noticeable for return fares at peak times. The logic is that those paying the cheaper fare are travelling against the peak flow.

I tend to think it irritates people less when the peak restrictions only apply in the direction of the peak flow.

The reason being, many people who are sold an Anytime ticket to travel against the peak flow will be quite unaware that they have been charged less than they'd have been charged for travelling with the peak flow. All they'll know is they're sitting on a very lightly loaded train indeed, but weren't able to get an off-peak ticket.

 

[Silver Cobra]

Has for some time been the case in the London and the Home Counties area that certain journeys starting from an outer station towards Central London have been priced more expensively than a journey in the opposite direction. Reckon there'll be numerous examples where the fare difference is more than just a token 10p.

I can give a good example for within the Home Counties, as it came up when I was doing a ticket search for a journey I'm planning in the summer. A Biggleswade to Peterborough Anytime Day Single is £12, whereas a Peterborough to Biggleswade Anytime Day Single is £14.50. In the case of return fares, it's 60p more expensive for a Peterborough to Biggleswade Anytime Day Return (£17.40) than the vice-versa (£16.80).

 

[greenline712]

Gerard Fiennes, in I tried to run a Railway, tells the story of a passenger travelling between Oxford and Banbury who queried why that fare was 4/9d, whereas the fare from Banbury to Oxford was 4/6d. The ticket clerk looked at the passenger, and said "because it is uphill". Surprisingly, the passenger complained!!

The answer was very simple . . . BR had determined that passengers from Oxford could afford to pay more, when compared with passengers from Banbury. This was in the mid-1960s.

Sometimes it can be that simple . . .