CrossCountry welcomes government decision on Advance fares

[whole diary]

[JayMac]

A press release from CrossCountry:

CrossCountry, the long distance train operator within leading transport group Arriva, has welcomed a decision by the Department for Transport to allow it to sell Advance Purchase tickets on the day of travel on a permanent basis, following a successful trial.

Since 2013 CrossCountry has been trialling a system that allows Advance Purchase tickets for its services to be sold on the day of departure, right up to almost the time a train leaves a station. These tickets are often much cheaper than other fares available to passengers travelling the same day, and are available exclusively through CrossCountry's website, its 'Train Tickets' App, telesales office, or The Trainline. Advance Purchase tickets are hugely popular with rail users with over one million sold each week on Britain's railways, and are used by train operators to encourage travel on trains where capacity is available.

CrossCountry introduced the sale of Advance Purchase tickets on the day of travel as part of its extensive investment to make it easier for people to obtain information and purchase train tickets following the widespread increase in people using websites and smartphone Apps. Launching one of the industry's most comprehensive Apps in 2009, CrossCountry followed this in 2011 by offering customers the opportunity to reserve a seat up to ten minutes before a train's departure. Since then over 175,000 'Reservations on the Day' have been made. Almost 150,000 journeys have been made on CrossCountry using Advance tickets, purchased on the day of travel. The service has been so successful it has already won multiple awards for innovation.

Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin said: "Passengers should be able to get the best possible deal every time they take the train, so this is great news for CrossCountry's customers.

"We are taking real steps to address passengers' concerns about the cost of rail travel. In addition to the deal with CrossCountry, we have frozen fares at inflation for the second year in a row. We are also working with the industry to improve the information people receive when buying tickets, to ensure they always get the best value fare."

Welcoming today's announcement, CrossCountry's managing director, Andy Cooper, said: "This decision will be welcomed by our customers as it allows us to continue offering the best value ticket possible, right up to the time they want to travel.

"We know that not everyone can plan their journey in advance when traditionally the cheapest tickets are available, and even those who can often have a change in circumstances that means their return journey can be uncertain. We now have the opportunity, if we expect to have seats available, to offer our customers a cheaper fare for their journey. And, like all other Advance tickets, customers can use their railcards to get a further discount, making their journeys even cheaper."

Following the Government's 'Rail Fares and Ticketing Review' which was published in 2013, CrossCountry was granted a temporary exemption to offer Advance Purchase tickets up to ten minutes before a train's departure. The trial was monitored by the rail industry watchdog Passenger Focus and included two rounds of research to understand customer opinions of the scheme, both of which provided very positive feedback on its use.

Guy Dangerfield, Passenger Issues Manager at Passenger Focus said: "It's great news for passengers that 'advance on the day' is here to stay and CrossCountry can carry on offering lower fares to last-minute travellers where seats are available".

CrossCountry will now share its experience with other train operators that may be considering offering a similar service. 

There are further notes to editors and examples of 'on the day savings' here:
http://www.crosscountrytrains.co.uk/about-us/press/crosscountry-welcomes-government-decision-on-advance-fares

My two penn'orth. CrossCountry do have some genuinely good bargains on shorter journeys and I've found that a combination of split Advances will often beat the through Advance fare. Even on the day. However, some of the walk-up fares that CrossCountry set are far too expensive. And their blanket 0930 restriction on Off Peak Returns is very unfair on those at the extremities of the CrossCountry network. One thing I will praise CrossCountry for - they seem to have got their yield management right. Some other TOCs^▸ (Train Operating Company) (closer to home...) could learn a thing or two from that.

[ChrisB]

Easier to control yield management when being allowed to sell Advances up to 10mins before. On long distance, they can know exactly how many spare seats they have on board at say, Cheltenham when leaving Birmingham or Derby

Those off-peak singles are now awfully close to the Anytime fares! Not much of a discount now...and of course, Advance fares go 100% to the TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company), where the other two pass through the RSP, so it pays to sell as many Advances as possible!

Crafty, but its working for them, onviously

[trainbuff]

I think part of the reason that they can sell tickets up to 10 minutes before is due to the nature of their reservation system, which is much improved in reliability these days. Not only does it reserve seats but real time information can be sent back as well.

For example, it is possible for a Train Manager to reserve a seat for you through his Avantix^▸ (Ticket Issuing System used on board trains) machine if you board on the day, with a Saver or Anytime Ticket, and within minutes the display will show this.

I cannot imagine FGW^▸ (First Great Western) could do this because they have no live feedback. In theory Virgin, who also have Voyagers could do it. I am not sure what reservation system East Midlands use on their Meridians but that might also be possible.

All in all a very clever system and well done to Crosscountry for using its potential

[IndustryInsider]

All in all a very clever system and well done to Crosscountry for using its potential

Presumably a similar system could be adopted on the new IEP^▸ (Intercity Express Program / Project.) operated trains when FGW^▸ (First Great Western) receives them and we can finally wave goodbye to paper reservations labels on those services?

[stuving]

Presumably a similar system could be adopted on the new IEP^▸ (Intercity Express Program / Project.) operated trains when FGW^▸ (First Great Western) receives them and we can finally wave goodbye to paper reservations labels on those services?

It was a requirement:

4.9.2 Seat Reservation System
TS636 The IEP Trains must be fitted with an automatic seat reservation system. The system shall use data from a central database to provide an electronic display adjacent to each seat and for each bicycle storage position (the display for each bicycle storage position shall be located outside the bicycle storage area).
TS1990 The automatic seat reservation system must be fully integrated with the PIS^▸ (Passenger Information System), updating automatically according to the position of the IEP Train.
TS637 The seat reservation system must accommodate changes in interior layout, such that reservation displays can be moved with the associated seat, to accommodate interior layout changes.
TS638 There must be a holder suitable for displaying printed reservation tickets adjacent to each seat as a back-up to the automatic system.

TS640 The automatic seat reservation system must deliver the following functionality:
^ interface directly with the Relevant Operator^s seat reservation system (which shall be assumed to be the same as the national seat reservation system). The reservation system shall utilise this data to maintain the reservation database for each IEP Train;
^ automatic remote download of reservation data via a communications link immediately prior to the start of a timetabled journey within a maximum of 5 minutes after the service to be operated has been confirmed to the IEP Train;
^ allow on board train crew to load or update seat reservation data for that IEP Train;
^ displays for each seat must indicate whether that seat is free, reserved for part of or for the remainder of the journey. The method of display must be easy for passengers to interpret quickly when boarding, and shall seek to convey an overall impression of the extent of reserved and unreserved seats within the saloon; and
^ displays must be automatically updated throughout a journey to indicate the current reservation status for the remainder of the journey.

However, exactly what it will do depends just as much on the booking system that drives it, of course.

[Btline]

Hmmm, nice idea, but do they still have those pesky seats which can switch to Reserved if someone books an Advance ticket 10 mins before?

[ChrisB]

Its not a switch. The seats are marked "maybe reserved during the journey", so you know when you chance taking it

[Tim]

All in all a very clever system and well done to Crosscountry for using its potential

Presumably a similar system could be adopted on the new IEP^▸ (Intercity Express Program / Project.) operated trains when FGW^▸ (First Great Western) receives them and we can finally wave goodbye to paper reservations labels on those services?

It might be clever, but IME^▸ (in my experience), it fails to work properly too often.  On my last XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) trip from Stockport, the train pulled in from Manchester with the reservation system displaying gibberish.  We had seats reserved but the external coach labels were also displaying nonsence (we boarded "coach L") so you didn't even know which door to board.  A few minutes south of Stockport the displays started working.  This lead to ten minutes of people changing coaches and booting others out of their seats.  Pretty stressful and chaotic.

The stupid thing was that the service was only 70% full, there were plenty of seats for everyone and it would have been better with no reservations at all.