| Petition for mileage based fares Posted by grahame at 20:50, 22nd November 2014 |      |
https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/rail-fares-that-make-sense
To make railway ticket charging regulations that force all railway companies to charge fares based on distance travelled irrespective of which train company is used and where the journey is made.
Why is this important?
We have a bewildering number of train tickets available, which can sometimes mean that for a long journey it is cheaper to buy 2 single fare tickets rather than one single fare ticket. Also, a return ticket can be cheaper than a single. It can even be cheaper to buy a ticket from one train company's ticket machine than from another train company's machine. Travelling to London Victoria can be cheaper than travelling to Clapham Junction (a shorter distance for me).
Looking at a ticket machine screen can make your head spin, when all you want to do is get from A to B and be charged for the distance travelled.
Legislation is needed to impose logic and fairness.
Why is this important?
We have a bewildering number of train tickets available, which can sometimes mean that for a long journey it is cheaper to buy 2 single fare tickets rather than one single fare ticket. Also, a return ticket can be cheaper than a single. It can even be cheaper to buy a ticket from one train company's ticket machine than from another train company's machine. Travelling to London Victoria can be cheaper than travelling to Clapham Junction (a shorter distance for me).
Looking at a ticket machine screen can make your head spin, when all you want to do is get from A to B and be charged for the distance travelled.
Legislation is needed to impose logic and fairness.
| Re: Petition for mileage based fares Posted by ChrisB at 21:10, 22nd November 2014 | |
Bang would go your Advance fares....but I agree something's necessary
| Re: Petition for mileage based fares Posted by LiskeardRich at 21:21, 22nd November 2014 | |
Some areas have really cheap fares that would lose out.
Living in corwall and making most of my journeys around Cornwall I don't support this petition at concern our prices would increase as a result.
Certain parts of the country rightfully have higher or lower fares than other areas based on many variables which wouldn't be right to level out over the whole nationwide networks
| Re: Petition for mileage based fares Posted by grahame at 14:22, 22nd November 2024 | |
10 years ago today - isn't it amazing how long it's taking to sort out fares.
| Re: Petition for mileage based fares Posted by stuving at 16:12, 22nd November 2024 | |
10 years ago today - isn't it amazing how long it's taking to sort out fares.
No. RDG and DfT have been passing this buck back and forth for years, so obviously it's something that scares them. And for good reason - any change would be seen as worse for them by a lot of people. We all know that when affected by something changing, those who gain barely notice and forget within a week or two, while those who feel hard done by bear a grudge for years.
I'm sure RDG would have accepted a radical simplification, and might have quite liked some aspects, such as having a lot of aggro about validity go away. But they really wanted to have a big say in the new system, but for it to be seen as imposed on them, so they could keep saying anything unpopular wasn't their fault.
| Re: Petition for mileage based fares Posted by Bob_Blakey at 11:38, 23rd November 2024 | |
Distance related fares are something that I have supported for quite some time; the price of any service, particularly one partially funded by the tax payer, should to some extent reflect the cost of providing it. I fully understand that this is not a simple calculation, and there are a myriad of things (potential variations) to be considered before settling on an appropriate £/mile metric.
But I do not accept that just because a particular area has been benefitting from what are effectively discounted fares since the year dot that this should be allowed to continue; not that long ago cheaper Off-Peak tickets from/to Avocet Line stations into/out of Exeter were completely withdrawn in favour of the Anytime product and I don't recall any public protests or reduction in passenger numbers.
The DfT civil service number crunchers should be tasked to look at the current situation in terms of £/mile fare variations nationally.
| Re: Petition for mileage based fares Posted by TaplowGreen at 16:27, 23rd November 2024 | |
Distance related fares are something that I have supported for quite some time; the price of any service, particularly one partially funded by the tax payer, should to some extent reflect the cost of providing it. I fully understand that this is not a simple calculation, and there are a myriad of things (potential variations) to be considered before settling on an appropriate £/mile metric.
I would imagine the cost of tickets on services such as the Night Riviera would be unaffordable to just about everyone were that formula to be followed.
| Re: Petition for mileage based fares Posted by eXPassenger at 17:37, 23rd November 2024 | |
Distance related fares are something that I have supported for quite some time; the price of any service, particularly one partially funded by the tax payer, should to some extent reflect the cost of providing it. I fully understand that this is not a simple calculation, and there are a myriad of things (potential variations) to be considered before settling on an appropriate £/mile metric.
I would imagine the cost of tickets on services such as the Night Riviera would be unaffordable to just about everyone were that formula to be followed.
A potential solution would be to taper the cost of rail travel over a specified distance.
For example:
First 150 miles x p/mile
Next 50 miles .75 x p/mile
Next 50 miles .50 x p/mile
This algorithm would be published as part of new mileage based fares. Similarly off peak fares could be charged as a specified % of the standard fare.
| Re: Petition for mileage based fares Posted by IndustryInsider at 01:02, 24th November 2024 | |
Fares based purely on mileage would mean big rises on rural routes that are currently much cheaper.
Compare Swindon to London with Scarborough to Goole which are roughly the same distance apart. The latter is less than half the cost for the cheapest return ticket currently, but is less frequent and takes almost twice as long.
Surely the option of increasing one fare or lowering the other could never be an option?
