Train fares still not value for money
Passengers across the country have had their say – rail fares are still too expensive. Coughing up the price of a train ticket doesn’t match the service we get.
It’s just another survey, but an impressive 31,000 answered, so we better give it a gander. Over half the folk questioned by consumer watchdog Passenger Focus don’t think train tickets represent value for money. Unsuprisingly it’s commuters that feel the most ripped off – they fork out on ridiculously expensive peak-time tickets to travel on a heaving train 10 times a week.
Last year we found similar results. Two thirds of rail staff didn’t offer us the cheapest fare and the price quoted was often double the cheapest option. No wonder we’re disatisfied.
Then again, my local station master has not only given me the cheapest fare in the past, he’s loaned me money for a ticket when I was short of cash. Naturally, this personal service is very rare, but there were some glimmers of hope in the survey too.
Satisfaction with train journeys up
Rail fare satisfaction was actually up by a respectable 8% compared to spring 2009, likely due to most fares being frozen in January. Next year will be a different story, though prices are expected to rise thanks to this year’s high retail price index. Just brilliant.
As far as individual rail companies faired, the London Overground and First Capital Connect (FCC) wallow at the bottom of the pile. Again, in sync with our results, just last month we found FCC selling first class tickets for trains that didn’t even have the expected premium seats.
Why’s our train delayed?
So what most annoys passengers when they travel by train? Apparently it’s the inept rail staff who fail to tell us why our train’s delayed. Passenger Focus’ chief exec Anthony Smith calls this the industry’s “Achilles’ heel”.
We’re frustrated when we don’t know what’s going on, even though we should be told after just a two minute delay. Otherwise we’re just left in the cold without a clue, holding a high-priced ticket to nowhere.
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Mr Gus
I agree totally. I find it incredible that I can buy a season coach ticket for my commute for £2500 but if I took the train it would cost me £3700, when surely it should be more efficient to run a train with so many people on it.
Matt
Is the answer re-nationalising the railways? I’m not really a fan of privatisation in general – I’m yet to be convinced that the “efficiencies” that private companies are supposed to bring about really outweigh the extra costs (dividends, large salaries and bonuses for upper management).
But then wasn’t British Rail a national joke and the railways in a far worse state than they are now? (I’m too young to remember BR, so not sure how true this is, but it’s the impression I get from what people say.)
I suppose if re-nationalisation isn’t an option, the government should at least regulate fares more closely. Peak fares in particular are ridiculously high.
Richard
Renationalising – I like it!
I grew up in the ’80s, so jokes about British Rail were safe adult chat – I remember picking that factlet up. It was like slagging off Skoda or Lada – a guaranteed, weary laugh. I remember our maths teacher joking that the logo (now used by National Rail of course) showed that BR didn’t know which way it was going.
Then came privatisation and a whole new realisation – BR actually wasn’t that bad in many ways!
Look at the London to Edinburgh line – for just £400m it was realigned, electrified and given a whole new set of trains (we’re still using them now). And all within a year and a half or so. Contrast that with the London to Glasgow route – £10bn, dogged by delays, line speed never raised as planned. Sure, there are lots of differences (1980s prices versus Noughties prices, the Glasgow route carries much more traffic). But that much difference?!
Rather than suck up subsidy and generate profits for private companies, as now, InterCity actually generated profit for the taxpayer!
The killer fact for me, though, is that the railways now get three and a half times the subsidy annually in real terms that BR got. Lots of things are better (frequency, punctuality – although there’s lots of padding in the timetables, stations, late night running, cheaper advance fares). But lots of things are worse (peak fares, peak creep, fastest train timings on the old InterCity network, complexity of fares). So overall I can’t believe the passenger experience is three and a half times better in real terms.
Still, the burgers were dire.
Jim
Completely agree, the price of rail is an outrage! That's what you get when you provatise the railways. On the one hand we have the government encouraging us to use public transport, on the other we have private rail companies charging us a fortune to use the train in peak times – when else are we expected to get to work?! If I had a choice I would much prefer the train, but it actually works out cheaper to drive. Staggering as they may be to believe.
k64
I agree that the railways should be privatised, perhaps all transport should. There was a time when you could reliably catch your connection because it was shown to be such in the timetable so a train would waited for a late arrival. I've suffered hours of waiting for a connection because the second train was a different company and had to leave exactly on time, even though the driver/guard/whoever could clearly see the slightly late train approaching.
k64
I wonder about your statement that its cheaper to drive. Are you including depreciation, insurance, servicing, tax, parking and road charging as well as fuel?
Richard
Jim, when you say 'we have the govt encouraging us to use public transport', I know what you mean as I read.
But then I stop and think, 'Hang on a minute'.
Because in what active, practical ways does any govt – local, regional, national – encourage me to use public transport?
I'm not saying there are none, because – I live in London – there are some. But it's not exactly a concerted effort, and that's in London where sheer overcrowding drives people to public transport.
Step outside London, as I did last weekend, and you remember that the car is not just still king – it's even more secure on its throne!
That takes me to k64's point about cost of motoring. It's true you've got to include all that, but the fact is that the real cost of motoring has been falling, which I find staggering but is borne out by stats.
That's not helped by those crazy rail fares. E.g. if you walk to Kings Cross right now and say I want to go to Leeds and I don't know when I want to come back – which isn't that crazy a demand to pose of a rail network in 2010 – they'll say 'that's nice, give us 223 quid'!
k64
The Passenger Charter itself creates problems for passengers.
On the plus side, if a train is very late it allows you to reclaim much of your fare. I've done this, and it works.
However, it costs the train company lots so, to try to reduce this cost they've added several minutes to the timetables.
At one time most trains between A and B took the same time, now we often see one train timetabled at the "headline" speed and all the others somewhat slower. This is the case even on short commuter routes like my local 7 miles to London. It now takes 2 minutes longer than several years ago.
alldav
Not just the railways! National Express coaches have some warped fares too. If I travel from Chepstow to Victoria, I can get a single for £11 – 135miles and a 3hours 10 minutes journey, with a further hour to complete the journey to my home. If instead I want to do a 2 hour trip – 125 miles to Heathrow bus station, leaving me half an hour from home, they offer a choice of £17 or £31 for the privilege. And they seem to think this is alright!
richard
K64 – The railways ARE privitised – Thatcher did it when she sold off so much of our assets in the last Tory Government. The fact that her short term gains at the expense of long term investment should be a warning to the CON-DEMS …… But it won’t be…..
I do not use "Public Transport" as I will not wait around for hours waiting for buses that only travel in convoys – then having to stand for hours. Travelling by Tube is a health hazard.
chris
Aylesbury to Sheffield
3.5 hours journey each way and £130 by train
I took the car, fraction of the time and cost and I didn’t have to stand.
Trains should be affordable; not a luxury.
diomedea exulans
This month’s Which? asks for comment on elongating peak times.
Having abolished the supersaver ticket a few years ago, First Great Western have now gone further. First, they introduced a new ticket which was cheaper than the surviving saver ticket, and available over less time, just like the former supersaver. Then they raised the prices of all tickets, so that the new ticket type was the same price as the old saver ticket, and the saver ticket quite a lot more expensive. Finally they extended the peak hours so that even the higher priced saver ticket is now harder to use.
It is high time that all rail tickets were regulated: at present the main benefit seems to be for London commuters who have season tickets. For example, after years of regulation of season tickets, a monthly season from Bristol to London is now worth buying even if you only use it three times a week. Not that I’m opposed to the London commuters benefiting – I just feel that the rest of us should as well.
Incidentally, First still show no compunction over other actions to make life difficult for passengers such as closing access to the platform from the pub at Reading, removing Brunel’s carriage access to the north platform at Bath in order to open profitable shops, or filling the carriages with so many seats that because they are so close together you cannot open a laptop.
Nigel Haynes
Muggins here renewed his Senior Railcard not realising South West Trains have introduced further restrictions (effectively extending peak travel). Now I can either travel after 11am with a “Super” Off Peak ticket, or pay more for my old Off Peak ticket to travel after 9:30am. My occasional journeys can’t wait until 11am so I won’t even save the cost of the Railcard this year.
What a rip off !
diomedea exulans
…and incidentally again, as if there wasn’t already enough nuisance on trains, First now say “we’re working with Volo TV to install television screens on the back of every seat in one coach on board all our High Speed Trains”. Generously, they add that headphones “can be purchased from the buffet car for just £2.50, and thereafter are yours to keep”.
shire of rose
This is the side effect of rail privatization. They can charge what they want to run railway.
Rail companies never listen rail users and passenger focus. Some of their train running empty on weekends still they will say their train running in full capasity !….Rail users are forced to use their car because of expensive rail fare and parking charges and confusing peak and offpeak and super off peak hours.Rail companies know, how to trap passenger in penalty fare for their single mistake. I hope all rail companies should be taken by mega train in future or nationalize again.
Richard Dilks
Shire of rose – only some of the fares are set by train companies. Some, thankfully, are regulated by the state; it was enshrined at privatisation. The future’s not necessarily great on even this though, as the Transport Secretary has said he may change the formula for the annual increase in regulated fares (i.e. they’ll go up by more than they have done) and the train companies have slowly extended peak times (regulated fares aren’t available during peak times, as a general rule).
THEODORE CHANA
Now, I thought driving was expensive. But, all I want is an hour train journey, up the road, how hard can that be? Online, is telling me it is twenty two pound, what the ****? They tell us to be green, and use public transport. How can we, when it is more expensive, than driving a bloody car? Thank you, for listening.
Bob
Isn’t it funny that the Tories are not in favour of nationalized transport for the UK and yet happy to let the German state-backed rail company Deutsche Bahn provide transport services in the UK – they own Arriva.
Also the Dutch rail company Abellio operates many rail franchises in the UK.
Similarly we don’t have nationalized electricity but let the nationalized French group EDF operate here