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Wrexham & Shropshire calls time on train fare chaos
23 March 2009
As passengers report being confused about train fares, a rail company finally gives them what they want ^ simpler fares and genuine value.

Wrexham & Shropshire, the train company which runs services from Wrexham, through Shrewsbury and Telford to London Marylebone, today becomes the first rail operator in the UK to banish confusing ticket options. Wrexham & Shropshire^s new flat fares sweep away the confusion by introducing a fixed price ticket valid all day, every day.

more...

www.wrexhamandshropshire.co.uk (http://www.wrexhamandshropshire.co.uk/media-press-release.php?id=22)

The advance purchase fares are good, when you know when you are travelling.
But this is a great idea and is already used in other european countries, where there is no differentiation between peak and off peak.
Hopefully this will result in the lowering the cost of competing train companies.

The statement "first rail operator in the UK to banish confusing ticket options" falls someway short of being truthful.

Leaving aside the numerous heritage railways, I recently rode the Croydon Tramlink from Wimbledon to Elmers End (recommended if you've never tried it, by the way!) and their fare structure nowadays couldn't be simpler: Price capping is now in place resulting in a maximum daily charge (0430-0430 daily) of ^3 regardless of usage.

But Croydon Tramlink is (a) not rail and (b) not a TOC.

I think it is a good idea - I bet it is in response to VTs Shrewsbury bid.

But why have they cut their off peak trains just before doing this? With this kind of publicity, they could be cashing in...

But hang on, on the Q&A page on W&S' website:


How will that work? Surely that voids the purpose of the barriers - to prevent ticketless people getting access to trains!
???

Link: http://www.wrexhamandshropshire.co.uk/news-item.php?id=36

Because nobody was using it even when it was off peak, how would these new changes affect it?

BTLine, you normally appear a knowledgeable sort of chap. That only serves to make me even more surprised and amazed at your ignorance in this matter!  ;D Take a look sometime at photos of the Croydon Tramline. It actually runs on RAILS. Honest. In fact, it even runs for part of the way on disused railway track.  ;D

It's true to say it's not run by a TOC however. Some company called "First" operate it - they're known more for running buses, I believe? :P :D

Trams are light rail, whereas TOCs operate on heavy rail.

Trams also operate on the roads - not all trams run in two rails. Those in Caen, North France, run on two rubber tyres with a central "guiding" rail.

I'm with BTLine on this one in terms of the context of the article. A tram is a suburban light rail operation unlike a heavy rail operator. Given that the W&S talk about being the first rail operator to banish confusing ticketing systems, the context was one of heavy rail, not light rail which don't have such systems in the first place.   

Don't forget NI Railways, http://www.translink.co.uk/tickettypes-nir.asp they have a simple fare structure.

Exactly how it says. Passengers will ask to be let through so they can purchase a W&S ticket on board and that will be permitted.

Do I take it, Btline, that you would refuse W&S passengers and trainspotters access to platforms at gated stations?  ;) Barrier staff in many places are usually quite happy to let people through to see off or meet friends and relations. I really don't see the problem. Chiltern operate a penalty fares scheme out of Marylebone and ATW conductors around Shrewsbury are usually very efficient with onboard ticket checks.

anyone can go up to the barriers and say they want to see someone off or use the toilet and egt through!

If you use a particular station on a regular basis, the gateline assistants don't really look at your ticket, they just let you through with a simple nod of the head!

Equally the staff at Bristol Temple Meads are more than happy to let you through into the platform area to use the subway ATM's

On a lighter side with regard to my above comment, Generally using a TVM at Bristol Temple Meads as a cash machine, never quite gives the expected results. Which I once witnessed first hand ;D

Yes, a lot of gateline staff are getting a bit too familiar with people, i.e. not checking the "regulars" season tickets that in turn end up being out of date! gateline staff are in for a little re-education very soon!

I agree that barriers are useful for commuter routes where the distances travelled are relatively short and the trains are very busy that it'd be almost impossible to manually check all tickets.

But I think barriers are a waste of time on all long distance routes particularly if they're going to be used by the TOC to reduce onboard ticket checks (like NXEC is planning to do once barriers are installed on the East Coast).

There's just too many ways of getting round it. If they're happy to let you through to see off friends, use a cash machine or board the open access operator that sells tickets on board then you can quite as easily jump on another train and if they've cut back on ticket inspections then you're in for a free ride.

Even if they don't let people through without a ticket and platform tickets aren't available you can easily buy the ticket to the cheapest destination from that station.

I'm inclined to agree with you about where barriers should be located, problem with the western region is that our large stations on long distance routes are also served by many local stopping trains, at the end of the day i'd love it to be possible to not have any barriers anywhere but modern society has dictated the need to bring them back as you just can't trust anyone these days!

So what's your solution when pax are using 'long distance routes' for short distance commuting?

How about for example, Durham - Newcastle commuters on the ECML? Ban them from NXEC and TPE services perhaps?  Or do you leave all the barriers at Southampton open for 10 minutes just before the FGW service leaves for Cardiff, or the XC service to Man Picc shows up, because it's long distance?

Basically, defining routes as commuter or long distance isn't at all straightforward once you look into it in detail. 

Paul

Yes! If you don't have a ticket - you should not be allowed onto the platform. Go and buy one like everyone else...

If you can just get through willy nilly as people on here seem to suggest :o , the whole point of the barriers (to ensure as far as possible that everyone boarding and alighting from trains at the station has a ticket) is being compromised, and you might as well get rid.

If you are not travelling - get a platform ticket/ the cheapest ticket possible.

As far as gating is concerned: Of course, in an ideal world - 100 % of stations would be gated. But this is not practical. So gate every major station. Most termini (including ALL holiday resorts) and major interchange points should be done.

That is what LM have done. They have created a "ring of steel" around Birmingham, by gating the main 5 central stations. From that, they can maximise revenue protection whilst minimising the no of barriers.

Ticket checks should NOT be reduced - indeed, with less people wasting guards' time by buying tickets onboard - even more and enhanced checks should be able to be carried out.

My main criticism of barriers is that they're so easy to circumvent if you don't want to pay the correct fare that it's quite easy to do so. If the barriers are there then they might as well be used but the problem is some operators are using it as an excuse to cut staff. The longer the route, the more money that can be saved by fare dodging and without the on-train checks it'll be trivially easy to get through the barriers with the wrong ticket.