Cheaper Rail Fares A cunning plan

Transcription

1 Cheaper Rail Fares A cunning plan [10 June 2015] The Tyne and Wear Public Transport Users Group (TWPTUG) Newcastle Group met in June 2015 and spent some time discussing the possibility of split ticketing as a way of getting the cheapest rail fares. This document is based on the experiences of those at the meeting and some searching on the internet. TWPTUG can take no responsibility for the accuracy of the sites from which information was drawn. We intend that this will be a living document and so welcome comments and suggestions for changes. Suggestions, once checked, will be incorporated into a revised version of the document and will be posted to our website. Our first bit of advice about getting the cheapest possible fare is simple. Check to see if you are eligible for any of the travel cards that are offered by the whole of the rail industry. It will cost to take out one of these cards but, depending on how much you travel by train, you should get your money back fairly quickly. Our second bit of advice is that tickets are generally cheaper if you are able to book well in advance and are prepared to restrict yourself to a particular time of travel. Don t forget that if you miss one of the trains on which you are booked you may have to buy a completely new ticket to complete your journey. Thirdly, if you are planning a number of journeys in a short period, there are a number of very attractive offers that allow you to travel within either a limited area or even over the whole network. Fourthly loom at the website of the operator to see if there are any special offers. Finally if you are not sure about the validity of any given ticket then ask at one of the travel or booking offices, the information on the internet or from ticket machines isn t always easy to understand and may be incomplete. Split Ticketing What is split ticketing? Another piece of jargon or something that could really help us to get the best possible deal? One definition we like is that you can usually split your journey into smaller chunks, stay on the same train as long as the train calls at that station, and pay less than an anytime or off peak return fare. [Split your ticket.com] In August 2012 the BBC carried out a simple experiment. They logged on to the National Rail website and found that an anytime return from Reading to Birmingham would cost 94. But if you bought anytime return tickets for different legs of the same journey on the same train (Reading - Banbury, Banbury - Leamington Spa, and Leamington Spa - Birmingham) you would have paid They pointed out that you didn t have to alight and the only rule is that the train must stop at the stations

2 you have bought the tickets for. The National Rail website detailed the journey calling points so, the BBC concluded, 10 minutes' of online research could save you around 50% of your fare. Split ticketing works in exactly the same way as ordinary train tickets work on the National Rail network and you are still eligible for discounts when booking train tickets with a railcard. Although you won't be able to ask for split ticketing at the ticket machine at the station, split ticketing is completely legal provided the train stops at the point where you split your fare and you don't even need to change train. You could use a computer to book your tickets, using one of the many sites that are available, and then pick up the tickets from your local station. Although the best savings tend to be found on rail journeys going across the country, split ticket savings are available on direct routes too and are not limited to particular train companies or specific journeys. How did we get into this strange situation? The Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC) said the ticket pricing is based on a system from the 1970s with "half the fares" regulated by the Department for Transport. "For over 40 years, rail fares in Britain have been based on passenger demand and competitive factors rather than a simple mileage tariff," a spokesperson said and "this means there are some anomalies where purchasing a combination of shorter distance tickets can undercut a longer distance through- fare." It hasn t helped that bits of the railway were priced by different sections of British Rail but since privatisation some operators have put up fares at different rates than others. Anthony Smith, chief executive of campaign group Passenger Focus, told the BBC that passengers should be made more aware of this cheaper method. Railfuture spokesman Barry Williamson said people should "be able to buy affordable tickets without jumping through hoops". A DfT spokesman said it was "working with ATOC to consider how to provide wider access to rail fares data in a way that allows private sector companies to offer fares information innovatively, while protecting passengers from buying invalid tickets". The train operators, asked why staff in ticket offices didn t draw the possibility of split ticketing to the attention of the public, said that To provide someone at a ticket office with every single permutation to get from A to B is simply impractical and would lead to unmanageable queues at stations and that it was up to the passenger to ask for a split- ticketed journey. It gets worse because the ticket machines that many of us use don t offer advice and will just present us with a limited range of options that definitely won t include split ticketing. Tyne and Wear Passenger Transport Users Group doesn t think that the situation is getting any better and we are unaware of any campaign by either the rail operators or the DfT to publicise the possibility

3 of ticket splitting. If things haven t really improved since 2012 BBC then we might assume that the rail operators aren t that keen on telling us about this source of cheaper fares - after all they are in the business of making money and, in some cases, want higher fares as a way of managing demand. Whilst a recent Despatches programme (C4) has again drawn attention to the possibilities of minimizing travel costs by splitting tickets we know that the number of people working in ticket offices has, if anything, fallen as new automatic ticket machines have been introduced. We know that there are plans to reduce booking office opening hours and staffing levels in the name of efficiency. We also hear from our friends in the Rail Unions that many of the most experienced staff in ticket offices, those that would most easily be able to use their long experience to advise a range of both journey and ticketing options, have either retired or moved on. Current staff do their best but often seem to be reliant on what their computer tells them. So going to a ticket office isn t going to be an easy answer. You ll need a lot of time talking with someone who really knows their business behind the counter as well as a patient queue behind you. What other help is available? The real geeks amongst us will have copies, available electronically, of the entire railway timetable and the complete ticket manual. Armed with these it is possible to work out for yourself the best possible deal but it could be difficult if the individual operators are offering special deals that are only available online. Luckily some help is at hand for those of us that simply want to use smartphones or computers without having to carry out a extensive and fundamental research. DON T FORGET THAT IF YOU DON T HAVE A COMPUTER OR DON T USE A COMPUTER YOU WILL PROBABLY KNOW SOMEONE WHO DOES. TAKE A NICE PIECE OF CAKE WITH YOU AND ASK THEM TO HELP. LIBRARIES ALSO HAVE COMPUTERS AVAILABLE TO THE PUBLIC AND DON T NEED THE OFFER OF CAKE. IT IS PROBABLY BEST NOT TO MAKE PURCHASES FROM A PUBLICALLY ACCESSIBLE COMPUTER USING YOUR CREDIT CARD. INSTEAD PRINT THE DETAILS OF THE TICKETS YOU WANT TO BUY AND THEN VISIT YOU LOCAL BOOKING OFFICE. Money Saving Expert has produced a free app called Tickety Split. The app is available, for iphones, via the app store. Android users can use TicketySplit Lite which is designed for use on mobiles. If you're on a desktop or laptop use the full TicketySplit tool at cheap- train- tickets. Their blurb says Split ticketing means grabbing two tickets for different parts of a journey, instead of the whole trip. Bizarrely, it's often far cheaper. Don't worry - it's also completely within the train operating companies' terms and conditions. They go on the explain that their tool searches single tickets using only one split, that you need to watch out if you need to change trains,

4 that the train MUST call at all the stations you buy tickets to or from, splits aren't always the same for the same train and that you are limited to five searches per day. There is an alternative for desktops and laptops at ticketing who tell us that if you want the cheapest train ticket for your journey but can't commit to travelling at a certain time or date or you've left it till the last minute and there are just no more cheap fares for your journey, split ticketing is the answer to your problem! Even if you're booking rail tickets on the day of travel, split ticketing can save you a small fortune. ask Ever found it difficult to get that cheap return train ticket you really wanted or left things to the last minute and all the cheap tickets had gone? Worry not, because you can usually split your journey into smaller chunks, stay on the same train as long as the train calls at that station, and pay less than an anytime or off peak return fare. Of course the easiest option is to book early and get hold of one of the many discounted fares offered by the individual train operators, otherwise enter your journey details above and see if there are any suitable alternatives that could save you money. However we think that you should be careful because they link you to the Trainline (see Health Warnings below) to buy tickets. However there would be nothing to stop you from printing out the details and buying elsewhere. SplitTicketing.com says, of itself that it is dedicated to helping you save money on your train tickets. Use our money saving split train ticket search and booking engine below and you could be pleasantly surprised with the split ticket savings you'll enjoy in addition to what you already save by purchasing your train tickets online in advance, or even if you book on the day of departure! This site comes recommended by Barry Doe, one of the leading independent experts of Rail timetabling and tickets. Looking at the general booking sites the Guardian said (August 2014) that Red Spotted Hanky offers the best deal. Head For Points, a website that compares travel loyalty schemes, has declared it the only "sensible" third- party option for buying train tickets. As well as no booking or card fees, it offers its own loyalty scheme. Travellers can also spend Tesco Clubcard vouchers on Red Spotted Hanky: 10 of Clubcard vouchers will get you a 20 Red Spotted Hanky voucher. Finally Rail operators usually start selling the cheapest tickets 12 weeks ahead of travel. Several sites, including Virgin Trains East Coast and CrossCountry, allow you to set up alerts to check when cheap tickets for your intended journey are released.

5 Health warnings In August 2014 the Guardian warned that Thetrainline.com - many people's default site for train travel, charges booking fees of up to 1.50 and a credit card fee of 2% (using a debit card is free), adding 2.50 to the price of a 50 ticket. Rival comparison site Raileasy charges a hefty 2.50 booking fee and a 4.5% credit card fee, adding a total of 4.75 to a 50 fare. It also charges for using a debit card (75p). Phoning Raileasy costs an eye- watering 1.02 a minute from a BT landline. The Guardian also tell us that Train Genius and MyTrainTicket also charge booking and credit card fees. The advice from the Guardian was to use the rail operators' own sites that don't charge extra. And may offer cheaper fares and some kind of loyalty scheme.all of the train operating companies sell tickets for the whole network but it's worth checking if a company offers discounts on its own tickets. As with any comparison it is really important to see what is being compared. Split ticketing will often offer savings against an open return and that is a valuable thing in itself but remember that one of the advance fares, that tie you to a particular train, might be even cheaper. Other resources Described as DOE S DIRECTORY OF PRINTED BUS & RAIL TIMETABLES, WEB SITES & ENQUIRY OFFICES this site is a real cornucopia of excitement for some of us. It has got an extremely useful, for geeks and others, page of links to other websites. Just click on the link from the home page, This is an independent website that allows expert users to fully explore the variety of fares offered by the train companies in Great Britain, without having to plan a journey or specify times and trains. Not all the fares shown on this site are available to the general public and they make the point that the ticketing system is not simple, and some amount of prior knowledge is needed in order to use the site effectively.