Flexi-10 - a pack of 10 day return tickets - from 2.1.21 / selected journeys

[whole diary]

[grahame]

From GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)

Flexi tickets

Responding to changes in travel behaviour, we are pleased to be able to offer a new type of flexible ticket, available to buy from 2 January 2021.

If you make the same regular journey, but not frequently enough to make buying a season ticket worthwhile, our new Flexi-10 ticket could be for you.

Exclusively available on our Smartcard, Flexi-10 is a pack of 10 day return tickets that you can use whenever you like over a two-month period. It?s a bit like having a flexible season ticket.

What?s even better is that Flexi-10 offers a 10% discount compared to the cost of ten Standard Anytime Day Return tickets.

How do I buy a Flexi-10 ticket?

You'll need a GWR Touch Smartcard to buy a Flexi-10 ticket. If you don?t already have one, visit our Touch Smartcard page for details on how to get one.

If you?ve already got a GWR Touch Smartcard, all you need to do is:
login to your GWR online account
select manage smartcards
select Flexi-season and enter your journey details
select the ticket you would like to purchase
buy your tickets
The two-month validity period will commence from the day you buy the Flexi-10 ticket, so it?s best to buy it on the first day you intend to travel.

You can keep track of how many journeys you?ve got left by checking your online account.

How do I use a Flexi-10 train ticket?

At the start of your journey, just place your Touch Smartcard on a smartcard reader. This will load any new purchases and activate one of your day tickets and allow you to travel. Our on board team can check your ticket by scanning your smartcard.

It is important that you touch in at the start of your journey and out at the end where facilities exist, to validate your journey.

Flexi-10 tickets can be used on any services that run on your route, even if they aren?t GWR trains.

Make sure you keep your contactless payment cards and smartcards separate when touching in or out to avoid touching more than one card on a reader at the same time.

Flexi-10 is available on the following GWR routes:
most local journeys from stations in the area bounded by Weston-super-Mare, Severn Beach, Cam & Dursley and Bath Spa to/from Bath Spa, Bristol Temple Meads, Bristol Parkway, Cardiff Central, Newport or Weston-super-Mare
most local journeys to/from Exeter St Davids, Exeter Central and Newton Abbot on the Exmouth and Paignton routes
journeys from Basingstoke to Reading, Maidenhead and Slough
journeys between any of these stations:
Bristol Temple Meads
Bristol Parkway
Chippenham
Didcot Parkway
Swindon
Reading
journeys between London Paddington and the following stations:
Basingstoke
Bath Spa
Bridgend
Bristol Parkway
Bristol Temple Meads
Cardiff Central
Cheltenham Spa
Chippenham
Didcot Parkway
Gloucester
Neath
Newbury
Newport
Newton Abbot
Oxford
Plymouth
Swansea
Swindon
Taunton
Truro
Flexi-10 tickets are part of a 12-month trial, and if successful we hope to roll them out on more routes.

[JayMac]

Good to see they're only to be on a smartcard.

Carnet tickets elsewhere can be very problematical if you forget to date them, use a biro, or just encounter over-zealous revenue protection. I've read numerous horror stories over the years. Including one chap who went all the way to the Court of Appeal after prosecution by Thameslink. He got his conviction overturned.

Still presumably need to validate at the start of each journey so don't forget folks. The RPI^▸ (Revenue Protection Inspector (or Retail Price Index, depending on the context))'s will be watching...

[ChrisB]

Yup - I'm sure at least one of origin or arrival station will be barriered such that a touch of the smartcard will be necessary....preferably both, but that'll cost money in a lot of stations

[Bmblbzzz]

Good that they're valid on non-GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) trains too, but I'd have hoped for pro rata pricing on a season ticket level not just 10 per cent off Anytime.

[Sixty3Closure]

Good that they're valid on non-GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) trains too, but I'd have hoped for pro rata pricing on a season ticket level not just 10 per cent off Anytime.

Doesn't seem to be available for my regular commute Twyford to London and I agree that the 10% isn't really enough to tempt me back. I travel between sites in London fairly often and it looks like this is single journey and doesn't include the tube which probably makes the travel card better value for my proposed 2 days a week in the office.

Really pleased to see it being offered though and a step in the right direction.

[didcotdean]

I am somewhat surprised that it is specifically 10 returns and not 20 singles as that seems more natural with an ITSO-type implementation and the way I thought things were going in general.

At least there has been express provision made for a break of journey.

[grahame]

I have been aware that some sort of carnet was in the works for a while, along with various other ticket possibilities. Under E(R)MA, each needs to be approved by DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) (Rail) before being implemented, who in turn have other masters elsewhere in Westminster.

Two objectives I'm pretty sure were set when these tickets were specified / agreed.

a) There is a call for some sort of consideration in ticketing for people who travel regularly, but are no longer in the five day per week season frequency.  These people need to know they are being thought about and that we are looking out for regular travellers.  That consideration must be visible.

b) We must not significantly reduce (further) fare box income.

The product as specified appears to do an excellent job of meeting both objectives. Other things it might have done if styled / tuned differently might be considered to be opportunities missed.  I may be wrong, but I'm guessing that uptake will be limited; perhaps another objective in the decision process, or perhaps something that's unspoken simply because no-one was going to step out and take a risk?

[ChrisB]

Good that they're valid on non-GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) trains too, but I'd have hoped for pro rata pricing on a season ticket level not just 10 per cent off Anytime.

Doesn't seem to be available for my regular commute Twyford to London and I agree that the 10% isn't really enough to tempt me back.

What discount do you currently get on a weekly ticket? 10 returns is the equivalent of 2 x weekly season (without the free weekend travel), so I'd expect the initial offer to be around equal (in % terms) in discount to a weekly. Why would you expect a greater discount?

[Sixty3Closure]

Good that they're valid on non-GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) trains too, but I'd have hoped for pro rata pricing on a season ticket level not just 10 per cent off Anytime.

Doesn't seem to be available for my regular commute Twyford to London and I agree that the 10% isn't really enough to tempt me back.

What discount do you currently get on a weekly ticket? 10 returns is the equivalent of 2 x weekly season (without the free weekend travel), so I'd expect the initial offer to be around equal (in % terms) in discount to a weekly. Why would you expect a greater discount?

Until recent events I bought an annual season including London underground/buses and generally got a 5-10% discount on top of the discount for a yearly ticket.

I don't expect a bigger discount and I understand the criteria Graeme mentions above about fare income but there needs to be an incentive to tempt me back to the commute. I'm fortunate in that I don't have to go back into the office for a while but even going forward there's not an expectation of a return to 'before'. Chatting to colleagues, friends and fellow commuters this isn't an uncommon situation and many are applying the same logic as me. I think there's a risk in London and the South East at least that without it being an 'attractive offer' people will chose not to commute.

I guess I'd like to see a bigger discount, TFL^▸ (Transport for London) services included and a longer period over which to use the tickets. Maybe have the option of 8, 12, 16 journeys over 3 months.