Scotrail

[Hillonearth]

With a lot of people likely to be WFH for multiple days a week in future, buying weekly passes will no longer make sense for them...I wonder if they've thought of introducing flexible multi-journey tickets, maybe pay up front for ten journeys you can use when you like within say 28 days?

[Donathan]

1 minute ago, Hillonearth said:

With a lot of people likely to be WFH for multiple days a week in future, buying weekly passes will no longer make sense for them...I wonder if they've thought of introducing flexible multi-journey tickets, maybe pay up front for ten journeys you can use when you like within say 28 days?

https://www.cityam.com/rail-commuters-to-get-flexible-season-tickets-in-back-to-office-bid/

 

Being considered down here

[Quiet Riot]

8 minutes ago, Hillonearth said:

With a lot of people likely to be WFH for multiple days a week in future, buying weekly passes will no longer make sense for them...I wonder if they've thought of introducing flexible multi-journey tickets, maybe pay up front for ten journeys you can use when you like within say 28 days?

Do you mean like this?

https://www.scotrail.co.uk/commuter/flexipass

These have been about for years.

Edited March 18, 2021 by Quiet Riot

[craigkillie]

They are ludicrously priced to the point that there is little advantage over buying separate returns.

[Jimmy Shaker]

The Forth RAIL Bridge? FFS. 

[Sherrif John Bunnell]

I though a newspaper with a hard on for the past would love a return to the 1970s.

[renton]

11 minutes ago, Sherrif John Bunnell said:

I though a newspaper with a hard on for the past would love a return to the 1970s.

Quality desperation from the Mail when Tom Harris is the first person they can get to quote their dissatisfaction.

Nationalising ScotRail is almost certainly one of those policies that commands a broad majority of the populace.

[Hillonearth]

40 minutes ago, Quiet Riot said:

Do you mean like this?

https://www.scotrail.co.uk/commuter/flexipass

These have been about for years.

It was something myself and the missus were talking about the other night - I had no idea they actually already existed

[Michael W]

1 hour ago, Quiet Riot said:

Do you mean like this?

https://www.scotrail.co.uk/commuter/flexipass

These have been about for years.

 

1 hour ago, craigkillie said:

They are ludicrously priced to the point that there is little advantage over buying separate returns.

This is the issue. If there is no tangible benefit to it, people won't bother. 

My "breakeven"  point when I commuted and had a season ticket was three days a week. Any less and there was no benefit to having it over biting day returns. 

Perhaps I'm a tight arse, but the thought of only travelling three days a week and paying the same amount is something I can't get on board with. £5k or whatever and you're travelling five days a week is bad enough, but paying the same and only travelling three just seems hilariously poor value for money and I'd question the point of it more. 

Unless the rail companies act on this, there will be a much greater resistance from many for going back to the office, which in turn gubs the rail operator. A tricky one for them to get right. 

Edited March 18, 2021 by Michael W

[GordonS]

8 minutes ago, Michael W said:

 

This is the issue. If there is no tangible benefit to it, people won't bother. 

My "breakeven"  point when I commuted and had a season ticket was three days a week. Any less and there was no benefit to having it over biting day returns. 

Perhaps I'm a tight arse, but the thought of only travelling three days a week and paying the same amount is something I can't get on board with. £5k or whatever and you're travelling five days a week is bad enough, but paying the same and only travelling three just seems hilariously poor value for money and I'd question the point of it more. 

Unless the rail companies act on this, there will be a much greater resistance from many for going back to the office, which in turn gubs the rail operator. A tricky one for them to get right. 

Despite working 5 days a week in Edinburgh for 20 years, a season ticket or flexipasses were never better value for me. When you take out annual leave, public holidays, days with meetings in other places, sick days, days when I take the car because I'm going somewhere straight from work and occasional working from home, savings get wiped out quickly. On top of that I can work flexible hours so I can miss the peak times, at which point it's much cheaper to buy daily returns.

I've asked a couple of times if they would do off-peak season tickets or flexipasses but they won't.

I wonder if in future we'll see a change in pricing, with peak fares and season tickets getting a little cheaper, and off-peak fares going up more to compensate (with better discounts on railcards for young, elderly etc).

[Genuine Hibs Fan]

Only a handful of TOCs doing smart card or electronic season tickets was an absolute delight for me when my old job at a travel company stuck me on season ticket refunds pretty much exactly a year ago, especially when folk were ignoring our advice and sending paper tickets into an unmanned office. 

We did get training where they explained the rationale of season ticket pricing but tbh it sounded like nonsense at the time and the price difference is barely worth it when you factor in holidays before any other absences

[Arch Stanton]

17 hours ago, FFCinthearea said:

I'm £16.50 for a return from Falkirk to Glasgow.   I take the car because it's cheaper.

Off peak is £11.40 but that's still ridiculous for a 20 minute journey. 

The station near me is Hawkhead. A 15 minute journey to GC, thanks to SPTE's subsidy the fare is £3.90 off-peak, £5.80 peak. Much more reasonable.

[Michael W]

1 hour ago, GordonS said:

Despite working 5 days a week in Edinburgh for 20 years, a season ticket or flexipasses were never better value for me. When you take out annual leave, public holidays, days with meetings in other places, sick days, days when I take the car because I'm going somewhere straight from work and occasional working from home, savings get wiped out quickly. On top of that I can work flexible hours so I can miss the peak times, at which point it's much cheaper to buy daily returns.

I've asked a couple of times if they would do off-peak season tickets or flexipasses but they won't.

I wonder if in future we'll see a change in pricing, with peak fares and season tickets getting a little cheaper, and off-peak fares going up more to compensate (with better discounts on railcards for young, elderly etc).

Between 95-100 return journeys hit the walk up price for me, which I easily exceeded. Then again, the walk up fare is outright extortion where I live. No advance tickets possible so it's often cheaper to travel from Swindon/Bristol etc. If you have advance notice. 

I do worry that off peak tickets are about to take a battering to claw back the lost commuter revenue, which is guaranteed money to the TOC. 

Edited March 18, 2021 by Michael W

[HTG]

1 hour ago, GordonS said:

Despite working 5 days a week in Edinburgh for 20 years, a season ticket or flexipasses were never better value for me. When you take out annual leave, public holidays, days with meetings in other places, sick days, days when I take the car because I'm going somewhere straight from work and occasional working from home, savings get wiped out quickly. On top of that I can work flexible hours so I can miss the peak times, at which point it's much cheaper to buy daily returns.

I've asked a couple of times if they would do off-peak season tickets or flexipasses but they won't.

I wonder if in future we'll see a change in pricing, with peak fares and season tickets getting a little cheaper, and off-peak fares going up more to compensate (with better discounts on railcards for young, elderly etc).

I don't really get the problem with flexipasses. They're a little bit cheaper than paying a daily fare and are valid for a month. I found them really convenient because, before pandemic, I generally worked down south a couple of days each week but I'd always get through 10 tickets in a month - usually a couple of weeks. And they are worth their weight when you're running for a train door that's about to close and you know the queue to get through the barrier at Haymarket is going to be horrendous on account of letting Fifers over the bridge. 

[Hedgecutter]

3 hours ago, RiG said:

Mind boggling there isn't a Megabus equivalent that does Inverness to Aberdeen calling in at Elgin and maybe Inverurie. Four hours between Inverness and Aberdeen is ridiculous. 

Can't see the demand to be honest and Megabus strikes me as a low profit margin business.  Even the ABE-INV train is pretty dead almost all the time, and that's when there's plenty of cheap advance tickets available.  Most megabus services I've been on have been used almost exclusively by pensioners and students going to/from the 'big' cities.  Wouldn't surprise me if they run at a loss during the week and make it up with full-house weekend services.

Even for pensioners, I can't see the appeal of going to Inverness by bus anyway as anything worth doing in the area realistically requires a car to do it.  Other than have an underwhelming castle, Inverness is nothing more than a service hub for the Highland area.  So without them, any business model would rely mostly on Aberdeen / RGU students from Inverness.  You can see the serious flaw in that model.

The seemingly glacial #10 bus is indeed a nightmare, but only if you're going the full way.  If you're wanting to go from eg Huntly to Keith, Keith to Elgin or Nairn to Inverness then it's a speedy enough service.  I guess the latter examples are what the #10 is there to cater for.

[GordonS]

29 minutes ago, HTG said:

I don't really get the problem with flexipasses. They're a little bit cheaper than paying a daily fare and are valid for a month. I found them really convenient because, before pandemic, I generally worked down south a couple of days each week but I'd always get through 10 tickets in a month - usually a couple of weeks. And they are worth their weight when you're running for a train door that's about to close and you know the queue to get through the barrier at Haymarket is going to be horrendous on account of letting Fifers over the bridge. 

They're only cheaper than peak, they're not cheaper than off-peak. And there's no evening peak from Edinburgh Park so I wouldn't be using them on the way home anyway, regardless of when I was finishing. 

Also, I go to Edinburgh Park and I don't think there's even a flexipass from Linlithgow to there - at least, there wasn't last time I checked.

[Ekhibee88]

With less people commuting during peaks, does not make sense to have peak fares. Especially the 415pm to 615pm Glasgow to Edinburgh one. Ive never noticed Citylink much cheaper if that than Scotrail fares on long distance services outwith peak.

[Ekhibee88]

1 hour ago, Arch Stanton said:

Off peak is £11.40 but that's still ridiculous for a 20 minute journey. 

The station near me is Hawkhead. A 15 minute journey to GC, thanks to SPTE's subsidy the fare is £3.90 off-peak, £5.80 peak. Much more reasonable.

£34.20 peak from East Kilbride to Edinburgh. Off peak that would be around half. Railcard is £9 return Glasgow to Edinburgh off peak or around £16 peak.

[Ekhibee88]

18 hours ago, DA Baracus said:

Their prices are absolutely pish, and I hold pretty much zero hope of that changing.

A return from Dundee to Glasgow if you buy on the day is currently £43.20. 

In fact I've just checked and a ticket for that journey a month from now is £49.10. Same with 2 months from now too.

Who do they think these prices are for? 

 

 

That's way too much for on the day fare. I think walk up fare for that distance should be lower, its a not a great distance either, advances are a bit restrictive on this relatively short journey. Last time I split my ticket at Perth.

[AsimButtHitsASix]

Step 1: Nationalise Scotrai
Step 2: Reverse every one of the Beeching Cuts
Step 3: ???
Step 4: Profit

See ye all on the Callander and Oban railway in 2025.