Rail fares capped at top and bottom end – now what about the middle!

18 January 2013

Do you remember the £1000 rail journey story from last year? A journalist had found out that a first class return from Scotland to Cornwall could now cost over £1000. Of course, like every story it is interesting, but what does it really tell you given that very few passengers will ever make such a long journey?

Anyway, Simon Calder, the sharp Independent travel journalist spotted something that passed us by. From 2013 no first class journey will cost more than £1000 return or £500 one way! Fantasy stuff for most passengers, but it does show that you can hack away at the complexity of the fares jungle.

So Oyster and other fares are capped at one end and first class at the other. The challenge for 2013 is making progress in getting better information around all the others so that passengers know what they are buying and have bought. The Government will be publishing the outcome of its fares and ticketing review in the spring. We shall be watching very closely how the progress the industry is already planning will be built on.