State-owned London North Eastern Railway (LNER) has rolled out single-leg ticketing across its network.
From Sunday (11 June), return fares were abolished, with all fares priced on a single journey basis. Crucially, LNER said it is ‘removing the outdated practice where a single ticket can cost almost as much as a return ticket’, with singles now around half what a return would have cost.
Ticket types available are Anytime Single; Off-Peak/Super Off-Peak Single; and Advance Single.
It follows a trial on three routes in 2020, between London King’s Cross and Leeds, Newcastle and Edinburgh.
LNER said it believes that making fares ‘simpler, smarter and fairer’ will encourage more people to choose rail.
When the roll-out was announced last month, transport secretary Mark Harper said: ‘The expansion of single leg pricing on LNER is the latest example of this Government getting on and delivering tangible reforms that will benefit rail passengers, delivering simpler, more flexible tickets that are better value.
‘Passengers will get the best value ticket for their journey safe in the knowledge a single ticket will be around half the price of a return.’
LNER said that independent online consumer research it commissioned found 61% of customers were in favour of single-leg ticketing being extended, and close to 45% of non-customers were more likely to travel for long-distance journeys with LNER in the future as a result of single leg ticketing.
More than half (55%) of LNER customers agreed that single-leg ticketing simplifies the way tickets work.
The Department for Transport’s Operator of Last Resort took over the East Coast main line franchise in 2018 and in 2023 it was awarded a two-year extension (to 2023) with the possibility of a further two-year extension.
