Can you imagine gow much more the Govt would need to do this in England, on top of the £2billion its costing already?

Fares south of Manchester have been many times those of fares north thereof for many, many years

That too - though I was looking at the ratios.   In absolute terms, for each Glasgow - Edinburgh return journey in the peak, there's going to be £13.40 less income.   If it was done on Melksham - Oxford, which is (I think) the nearest comparable distance I came up with, the income loss would be £40.30 ... which starts to explain why the scheme is cheaper in Scotland and fares there are already unfairly (red rag to bull?) cheap.

Experimental all-day lower fares a victim of financial crisis

It was a fantastic idea - but failed because the major change it sought to incentivise happened too slowly to escape the Scottish Government’s unprecedented spending squeeze.

Faced with a slower post-Covid return to commuting than the rest of Britain, along with hugely-ambitious emissions reduction targets, ministers hit upon an experimental suspension of the higher ScotRail fares during morning and afternoon peak hours.

It was aimed at encouraging people to switch from car to train, with the majority of ScotRail’s services now electrically hauled.

The six-month trial from October last year was extended twice, to a year, it give it more chance after a series of winter storms reduced travel. But nine months in, it has so far failed to persuade enough folk to make the change, and ended up primarily benefitting existing rail passengers.

A pilot scheme scrapping peak-time ScotRail fares will end next month following a "limited degree of success".

Transport Scotland said the trial - subsidised by the Scottish government - cost £40m but "did not achieve its aims" of encouraging more people to swap their cars for rail travel.

The scheme began in October last year and was extended past its initial six-month run. It will now come to an end on 27 September.

The trial saw the cost of a rush hour ticket between Edinburgh and Glasgow drop from £28.90 to £14.90. Post-pilot, the fare will increase to £31.40.

Those travelling between Inverness and Elgin also saw their fares drop from £22 to £14.40, while the ticket price between Glasgow and Stirling fell from £16.10 to £9.60.

Critics have branded the decision as a "hammer blow" to commuters and the climate.

Transport Secretary Fiona Hyslop said analysis showed the pilot primarily benefited existing train passengers and those with medium to higher incomes.

Peak fares are set to be scrapped ‘for good’ by ScotRail services in three weeks’ time.

The policy reversal announced by the Scottish Government in May this year will take effect on Monday September 1, with officials saying they aim to make train fares simpler, more flexible, and provide better value for money for rail users, as well as getting more people to leave the car at home and travel by rail instead.

Removing peak fares will mean significant savings for customers, with some journeys set to reduce by almost 50% as people pay the same fare no matter what time they travel, or the day of the week.

The price of a return ticket from Helensburgh Central to Glasgow, leaving before 9am, will fall from £14 to £8.90.

Peak fares were dropped in September 2023 but then reintroduced 12 months later, with Ministers saying it would have required a 10% increase in passenger numbers for the policy to be self-financing and they would only to reintroduce to if given more money by Westminster.

But today Cabinet Secretary for Transport Fiona Hyslop said: “Public ownership has created the opportunity to deliver a railway which is run for the benefit of the nation. ScotRail is one of the fastest growing operators, with one of the best passenger satisfaction rates and we are building even further on this success by removing peak fares for good.

“We want more people to choose to travel by public transport for work, study and leisure but we know that many are still struggling with cost-of-living pressures.

I presume this means for Scot rails trains only and where they are heading to and from,

but not the long distant(non Scot rail trains to London,for example?) 

Train passengers no longer have to pay higher prices for peak time tickets on ScotRail, raising the question over whether the rest of the UK could follow suit.

While some passengers told the BBC they would welcome the prospect of cheaper tickets, experts are divided over whether it could push prices up overall or result in overcrowded carriages.

The peak/off-peak system is designed to discourage passengers from getting on busier trains, by making it more expensive to travel during the commuter rush before 9am and between 5pm and 7pm.

However, the pandemic working from home and rail usage has not yet returned to pre-Covid levels so peak travel times are less busy than they used to be.

David Ross, chief operating officer at ScotRail - which is owned by the Scottish government - told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that the shift meant it could scrap peak charges as "there's plenty of capacity for people to travel with us".

Unlike the Scottish system, English railways are run by a mix of publicly-owned firms and private contractors which the government has pledged to nationalise as their contracts end.

Ticket prices are set by the Department for Transport (DfT) so if the government wanted to scrap peak fares across England it could.

London North Eastern Railway (LNER), which is run by the government, is experimenting with the removal of off-peak charges across parts of its network, external - with the pilot due to end on 7 September.

The DfT has not said whether or not it would try removing off-peak charges across the whole English network, but it has said it wants to reform the way tickets are priced as it nationalises the system.

"We know the current labyrinth of fares and prices can be confusing, which is why we want to make it easier for passengers to find the right ticket for their journey," a transport spokesperson said.

Meanwhile, Transport for Wales (TfW) and Translink operate the Welsh and Northern Irish railways and are run by their devolved governments.

The BBC has approached both TfW and Translink for comment.

ScotRail's move has reduced prices - an anytime day return ticket from Glasgow to Edinburgh has gone from £32.60 to £16.80. ScotRail's Ross said this means "passenger journeys will increase and over time it will pay for itself", but rail experts are divided.

If passenger numbers remain the same ticket prices may need to go up overall to make up for the lost revenue, some have warned. The other issue is what scrapping off-peak would mean for some already overcrowded routes.

"Clearly, the rush hour trains are already packed. And if you remove the disincentive to travel, it would mean more would want to travel on those trains," said Bruce Williamson from campaign group Railfuture. As such, he said any removal of peak charges would need to come alongside investment in increasing capacity of the rail network - something which would cost the government money.


(BBC News article continues)

From the BBC:

Scotland scraps peak rail fares - will the rest of the UK follow?

Follow up article on the BBC

....(2) Evening peak out of Paddington often feels quite lightly-loaded. Note I'm mainly familiar with longer-distance journeys; locals may differ! Also I'll mainly be travelling on days where commuter load may be lighter e.g. it's often a Friday or in the holidays if I'm making a long journey. I sometimes just miss the off-peak and use a complex split (typically involving Didcot, which narrows options a bit) to make the peak fare palatable, although it's still much more than I'd like to pay! And it turns out I sort of like doing it this way; the trains I just miss are often busy, but there are some nice options in the peak that are (IMX) quite lightly loaded. Very much a case of people being priced out for no good reason - and with the side effect of making first & last off-peak trains irritatingly busy!...

ScotRail's 'cheapest tickets' claim is misleading, watchdog rules



ScotRail has been ordered to withdraw claims that it offers the "cheapest tickets" on its website after a watchdog ruled this was misleading.

In August, adverts on its journey planner claimed it was "unbeatable on price" and customers should "book direct for the best price".

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) upheld a complaint from long-time campaigner George Eckerton in finding that ScotRail had no evidence to back up those claims.

The rail operator said it has changed the wording on the website, and remains committed to offering great value for money.

Following the ruling, Mr Eckerton told BBC Radio Scotland's Lunchtime Live programme he hoped it would "set a precedent for how we market rail travel in Scotland and across the UK" from now on. He said: "If you say you sell the cheapest possible fare, it actually needs to be cheaper than anywhere else, and that wasn't case. It's an inherently complex system – I get that. But that doesn't mean that we can't make it clearer through marketing and sell people the best fare for their circumstances. Hopefully ScotRail and others can reflect on how we sell train tickets across the UK, because I think we should be honest with passengers."

His complaint to the ASA referred to an advert which appeared on the ScotRail website's journey planner section in August. It featured statements such as "get cheapest tickets" and "book direct for our best price".‎‎ Another page titled "find the right ticket" featured a tab labelled "buy tickets". That tab could be clicked on to reveal a drop-down box with a journey planner, under which text stated "unbeatable on price".

ScotRail said the claim "book direct for our best price" referred to the fact that consumers who booked directly with ScotRail always paid the lowest price it offered. A spokesperson said the rail industry operated under regulated fares with a centrally-controlled fares database from which all accredited retailers sourced their ticket prices. They said they applied no additional booking fees to those standard fares, unlike some third-party retailers and competitors, which meant they could guarantee their best price when a consumer booked with them directly.

The ASA ruling said: "As stated, we considered the overall impression of the ad was that consumers would be able to find the cheapest ticket for a particular journey on the ScotRail website. As such, we considered that the claims 'get cheapest tickets', 'book direct for our best price', and 'unbeatable on price' discouraged consumers from searching elsewhere for cheaper tickets. However, they provided no evidence that, through purchasing tickets separately on the ScotRail website, they would always beat competitors' prices."

The ASA said that the ad must not appear again and told ScotRail to ensure they do not mislead consumers by claiming they could offer the lowest price available if that was not the case. The ruling came as part of a wider piece of work related to online ads in the rail industry concerning "lowest" or "cheapest" price claims, with ruling against Abellio Greater Anglia and mytrainticket.co.uk also published.

George Eckerton had also complained to the UK government about price claims made by the rail operator Northern, which were subsequently changed without the need for ASA involvement. Mr Eckerton, who has spent the past 10 years campaigning for cheaper rail travel in Scotland, said: "I complained to ScotRail but didn't get much more of a response (other) than, 'we'll consider it'.  I just hope that going forward, and in the spirt of Christmas, we can all learn and move forward."

Claire Dickie, ScotRail's commercial director, said: "Our aim is always to provide clear, accurate information to customers, and we regret that the website messages did not fully reflect the ASA's requirements. We take great care to ensure all promotional material meets advertising standards and expectations and will further review our processes to make sure we maintain the highest standards of compliance."

Train firms warned over ‘best price’ claims after watchdog bans ads
Advertising regulator said operators and a ticket seller could not prove bookings were cheapest

Train companies have been warned over price claims made on their ticketing websites after the advertising watchdog banned ads run by three sellers.

The Advertising Standards Authority ruled that claims made for fares booked via ScotRail and Greater Anglia’s website, as well as by a third-party ticketing site, My Train Ticket, were misleading.

In all three cases, the ASA said, it found the companies could not provide evidence to show that people would get the lowest available price by booking train tickets through them.

[....continues]