Return train tickets to be scrapped

[Bucketheadbucketbum]

Yet more punishment for rail users

Back to the car for me!

I hate buying train tickets, why is it so bloody complicated?
I just want the best price to get from X to Y. I don’t want to spend hours trying to work out if it’s cheaper to get it to Z but not use the extra bit, or sign up for a card, or agree to do a hand stand for the duration.
just let me go on a website, put in my destination and tell me what I need to pay. That’s it.

Spot on.

That's exactly what this proposal is trying to solve.

They are making an announcement this week. Perhaps wait and see if that is clearly laid out in a free to access manner before you start complaining. I've got a hunch that it will go on the government dedicated website you mention, just like every other announcement they make.

The reason they start briefing like this is to get attention (news changes so quickly now to get a decent amount of attention you need to drag the story out - bit like drip feeds on here)

The reason is to reduce the impact of fare evasion: even if someone only gets checked on one leg of a return journey - and most people will return - the company has had most of the income.

Exactly this....

There needs to be a clear link between distance travelled and cost!!

Our European family are always disbelieving when they realose just HOW expensive the train is, especially if you can't book ij advance.

@Scienceadvisory if this problem (people misunderstanding) is one that happens regularly, then surely the onus is on the government to change the way they communicate with the public.

This policy is a good example. It is available through a paywall in a newspaper I don't buy or subscribe to. It has been picked up by one free online, but that reporting is obviously second hand. I do, however, keep an eye on BBC news and would always prefer to read the actual statement from the government direct. I don't think I'm to blame for not knowing what the policy change is, or it's potential implications.

I have read the article but in my post I raised the point of off-peak pricing. Currently there is no off-peak single ticket so it's £3 to travel into the city centre, no matter what time of day. However, off-peak and super off-peak return tickets are much cheaper than a single here, so I'm questioning whether they will introduce a £1 off-peak single.

I fail to see how that benefits anyone but the customer so I doubt it.

@HellcatSpangledShalalala actually you quite clearly said "Ermmm because it's Tory policy" so I was asking where that's stated.

Of course they can leak early to generate interest. But then they have to accept that people will only know half the story, and many will only get it second hand (and thus embellished) as they don't subscribe to the government's preferred newspaper.

There's no way that an open return is that cheap. Open returns are only sold for longer distances (journeys of at least half an hour). Those fares must be day returns.

The government has risen train tickets by the rate of inflation for the last 13 years.

this year due to inflation being so high and the strikes they broke the rules and didn’t raise tickets by the rate if inflation

so now by doubling the price of a journey….

Pricing is so messed up at the minute that I'm pleased they are at least trying to fix it.

I had a special trip booked last year and decided it would be nice to take the train rather than drive.

I was traveling from Chester to York. I wanted an open return as I wasn't sure what time we would want to leave on the last day.

2 people with a disabled rail card.

Open return was £140 Chester-York.

I did a lot of fiddling and in the end an open return Chester- Manchester plus 2 singles for Manchester-York and back was cheapest. £78.

There were many variations in between. It's messed up and something needs to change

The north is unliveable?! Seems dramatic. Where did you move to!

Well it's all being announced this week by the transport sec and was first announced by Johnson and Shapps so that tells me it's tory policy rather than train companies just coming to this decision themselves.

A single will be half of what return fare though? Peak time returns are not just marginally more expensive than singles they are often closer to double. My three return fare options for a journey I do often but not often enough to pre-book are £12.30 off-peak, £18.60 anytime, £22.40 peak time

Also why is it common practice for them to not offer off peak tickets at off peak times from certain stations? The machine at my mum's local station only ever lists the anytime price, even if it's a weekend. If you do the same journey but starting in London it's £12 instead of £18

It doesn't work for me, at all.
I use return tickets because of the flexibility they give me.

But half the story isn't what the OP started this thread on. She's just gone by a headline. Which unfortunately so many people do and that's the same whether people get their news from the telegraph or the BBC.

I agree with you that the govt need to communicate better with the public. But the public also need to change. They need to not just accept news from one source which will have their own preferred spin on it. They should go to the direct source on gov.uk. and they should also not just post online made up stuff based solely on reading headlines. Headlines now are merely clickbait from our pathetic media who gave up on proper journalism a long time ago.

But nobody has announced that people will be paying double. Which was the original issue and which, when you responded to my post about it, you said the well its tory policy.

We’re not idiots… although this government treats us that way. If this a stoppage of return tickets was in any way designed to make public transport travel cheaper and easier than it is now, you can bet it would be communicated to us by every possible channel going.
It’s obviously not. Not telling us that clearly is totally unacceptable. The whole thing is totally unacceptable.

if you’re worried about this, send a quick email to your MP to ask them to oppose this. The reality is that MPs realising that it’s causing public disquiet is the only way it will be stopped.

By abolishing open returns and pushing everyone towards advance singles if they don't want to pay through the nose?

Every year a minister comes out and says that the ticketing system should be simplified. Every year it gets more complex. So if you'll forgive me for being cynical...

I want to see a mileage-based system. Much fairer. Advances purely used to incentivise travel on the quietest services (those with less than 50% occupancy), not available for wedged trains.

I'd also like to see more carriages to reduce overcrowding, but fat chance of that when the government is ordering operators to make cuts to their fleet, I dread to think what summer services to Cornwall will be like once they HSTs go.

More than the rate of inflation - RPI+1 for years (even though RPI has long been considered flawed) and for a few years under Osborne RPI+3.

It will make fare splitting easier!
I find that two singles have been priced the same as a return for a long time now.
They will not increase revenues by doing it.
Hopefully, it is the start of re-nationalization.

@Scienceadvisory you asked why people were getting irate about it, I said because it's tory policy (and therefore even though we don't know that it will result in increased fares, it's what people expect due to experience). At no point did I say it will definitely result in increased fares.

I'm not going to continue going round in circles with you, you know exactly what I was saying.

Well it is being communicated later in the week. The minister for transport is due to make an announcement, it will be published on gov.uk and will inevitably be covered by all major news programmes and newspapers. I'm not sure what is unacceptable about that?

And as to this whole thing being unacceptable how could you possibly know before it's announced? None of us do, that's the whole problem with this thread with people getting worked up before they know any facts.

People engaging with their mp to raise objections is a good idea but only when people have a clue what they are objecting to. The sensible thing to do would be yo wait until the plans have been published and then email your MP. Because I'm betting there are going to be things in this plan worth objecting to (the tories have made clear they want less rail staff)