The transport secretary has announced a limited extension of a single leg ticketing trial within a state-run rail franchise, alongside a trial of ‘demand-based pricing’.
In a major speech to rail industry figures, Mark Harper said the industry was ‘currently financially unsustainable’, with revenue around £125-175m lower each month than before the pandemic and costs ‘rising year on year’.
An LNER Azuma train
He added: ‘We have a broken model – unable to adapt to customer needs and financially unsustainable.’
Mr Harper argued: ‘To raise revenue, we must instil a customer first culture. That means reliable services, comfortable journeys and accessible stations. But it also means tackling the issue which tops passenger lists of biggest concerns, which is fares and ticketing.’
The transport secretary announced that the Government would extend what he called the ‘successful’ single leg pricing trial by state-run LNER to other parts of the LNER network from the spring – ‘and then carefully consider the results of those before extending more widely’.
LNER’s trial, which began in November 2019, saw return fares abolished on a limited number of journeys
Mr Harper said the move would mean that a flexible single fare will always be half the cost of the equivalent return.
Although he said the move was ‘not about increasing fares’, he did not explain whether or how the Government would prevent rail firms increasing the cost of currently discounted returns rather than offering single fares with the equivalent discount.
Norman Baker from Campaign for Better Transport said: ‘This was a very encouraging speech from the Transport Secretary. It’s particularly encouraging to see a way forward for growing passenger and freight business, as opposed to making cuts to save money.
‘The challenge now is for the transport secretary and rail minister to make this happen.’
The Labour party’s London Assembly transport spokesperson, Elly Baker AM, said: 'The Government is pushing for demand based ticket pricing as complicated as the airline industry, not delivering on their commitment to simplify fares.'
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