LNER are taking us for fools

Sunday 21st January 2023

“Our Simpler Fares pilot aims to make buying tickets even easier and give customers a better experience with just three ticket types.”

That’s the pitch LNER’s marketing people are using to justify the new “70min Flex Ticket” announced on Tuesday that starts on Monday 5th February.

But what the PR and marketing hype doesn’t make clear is (a) passengers already experience “just three ticket types” (Advance; Off-peak; Anytime) and (b) what this con of a ‘pilot/trial’ involves is withdrawing the flexible and reasonably priced off-peak/super off-peak ticket and replacing it with something more restrictive, namely a ticket able to be used 70 minutes either side of a specified journey time having been purchased in advance of travel.

Furthermore, this new “70min Flex Ticket” is subject to limits on numbers sold and if you do want to change the time (by up to 70 minutes) you have to go through a rigmarole of doing so before you travel using either the LNER app or logging into ‘My Account’ on the LNER website, otherwise it won’t be valid.

And if all the alloted seats have sold out for the journey you want to rebook on….. tough.

How can that be “easier” and “a better experience” than a flexible off-peak ticket?

LNER’s website proclaims there are two advantages for passengers from this pilot:

Firstly, the off-peak ticket being withdrawn already allows for overrunning meetings or deciding to go home earlier for dinner, because it’s flexible (within the limits of the definition of off-peak). And secondly, of course the new “70min Flex Ticket” is cheaper than an Anytime ticket – so is the off-peak ticket it’s replacing. No ticket could possibly be more expensive than the Anytime ticket. That ticket is trackside robbery.

Instead of enjoying flexible off-peak travel including being able to break your journey along the way at places like York, Darlington or Durham, under this new pilot, passengers will be restricted to using one of just five timed journeys within a two hour 20 minute window (ie 70 minutes either side of the original booked journey time on a half hourly service) without any break in journey possible and on top of that will be subject to seat availability, as a reservation is compulsory.

Thankfully the pilot initially only involves three journeys, albeit probably three of the most popular journeys on LNER: between Kings Cross and Newcastle, Kings Cross and Bewick-upon-Tweed and Kings Cross and Edinburgh Waverley.

From 5th February, the only option for passengers wanting flexibility of travel times for those journeys, and an absolute guarantee they’ll “get home early for dinner”, will be to stump up for an exorbitantly priced Anytime single ticket.

A journey from London Kings Cross to Newcastle-upon-Tyne currently costs £83.80 single if travelling during what LNER defines as super off-peak. That is: on Mondays to Thursdays not leaving Kings Cross before 09:06 or between 14:59 and 18:59, or arriving from the north before 11:17.

In practice that means heading north from Kings Cross to Newcastle on Mondays to Thursdays until 1st February, if passengers don’t want a journey restricted (and quota limited) Advance ticket and want to just turn-up-and-go, the first six departures set them back £192.80 for the single journey; the next 11 departures £83.80; the next eight departures £192.80 and then four more evening departures for £83.80.

From 5th February passengers will have to pay £192.80 for those 11 off-peak and four evening journeys too if they want to retain a flexible travel experience. More than a doubling in price. If making a return journey to Newcastle it’ll be an unaffordable £385.60.

This pilot is all about doing away with off-peak tickets by the back door. The DfT is testing passenger reaction to a new era of rail ticket price extortion.

This is NOT “Simpler Fares” as being miss-sold by LNER.

It’s a massive ticket price increase for the same flexibility.

And such is the scale of the increase passengers face (or forced to accept added travel restrictions), I suspect passengers will react by simply not travelling with LNER.

It’s an open goal for Open Access operator LUMO which runs on the same route and is not part of this scandalous ‘contempt-for-the-passenger’ pilot.

Except LUMO trains are already very well used with little spare capacity although, in a lovely timed coincidence on Friday, the company announced it was “exploring plans to add more LUMO services” to its timetable.

What really annoys me about this pilot is firstly there’s been no consultation; passengers are just being presented with a fait accompli with a popular ticket abolished, and secondly the way it’s being communicated by headlining how much “better” it will be and not being upfront about the downside.

The rail industry has form trying to justify the indefensible with weasel words. The Ticket Office closure debacle originally set out to convince us it would provide “better face-to-face interactions”. The Rail Delivery Group even produced a video called “Customer Focus Stations” to convince us the future really would be all the better by shutting down the very places that were absolutely customer focused. In that case we were told a meaningless on “average” only “12% of passengers used ticket offices”.

Coincidentally, this time we’re being told on average only 11% of passengers use off-peak tickets.

And they’re trying to convince us replacing a flexible ticket with one that by comparison is more restrictive is “a better experience”.

If this pilot was truly aiming for “a better experience” it would simply enhance the Advanced ticket, which is limited to a specific journey, with the new idea of a “70min Flex Ticket”. And leave the off-peak ticket as is.

Or better still, as in Scotland, the DfT would sanction a pilot to do away with the exorbitantly priced Anytime ticket and allow off-peak tickets any time flexibility.

That would simplify the range down to just two ticket types and genuinely give a “better experience”.

Since Covid and the rise of online business meetings there’s no longer any justification for peak hour pricing on long distance trains in any event. They’re running virtually empty, save for offering Advance purchase tickets usually at the off-peak price.

Do you know how many passengers travel on LNER’s ‘Flying Scotsman’ style non-stop (save for Newcastle) journey leaving Edinburgh at 05:40 (Newcastle at 07:04) and arriving Kings Cross at 09:40 (to create a headline grabbing end-to-end four hour journey time)?

Go on, have a guess. there are no Advance tickets allowed on this journey, nor off-peak tickets. It’s aimed at business folk. The only fares are full price £193.90 (from Edinburgh) or £192.80 (from Newcastle). How many passengers do you reckon are on board that train?

I’m told by a Company Insider on a recent morning there were just 30 passengers leaving Newcastle. The on board staff moved them all into first class in coach L.

It’s a clear example of eye-watering, unaffordable fares pricing passengers off the railway.

It’s noteworthy post Covid both LNER and Avanti West Coast removed all peak hour restrictions on Fridays and I’m not aware the world has ended. Indeed I think it’s time that was deemed the success it is and extended to every day of the week.

If this LNER pilot is deemed successful and rolled out to other destinations (as I suspect the DfT will connive to achieve) it’ll spell the end of the ‘walk on railway’ as it’s been since inception 250 years ago next year. What a way to mark this upcoming prestigious milestone.

This crazy exploitive idea must be stopped just as the Ticket Office and London Travelcard proposals were. Except this time I see Transport Focus has been persuaded into lending support to the pilot.

New chief executive of the watchdog, Alex Robertson, is quoted: “the plan to trial demand-based pricing on some LNER routes is a radical change for passengers. Transport Focus strongly supports fares reform and it’s right to trial new ideas to see if they work”.

Stewart Fox-Mills, programme director for fares, ticketing and retail at the Great British Railways Transition Team (GBRTT) is even more ebullient “it is great to see this next step in the simplification of rail fares. This pilot will move the dial towards simpler and better fares for customers”. Yeah, right Stewart. And do you get free staff travel on the rail network? When did you last have to buy an off-peak ticket this “better fares for customers” pilot is abolishing? Still, I guess it gives Stewart and the team at GBRTT something to talk to each other about because I can’t think what else they can be doing now the Government has gone cold on the whole idea of sorting out the structure of the railways.

Then there’s Rail Minister Huw Merriman: “we are delivering on our commitment to reform the railways, working with operators to provide passengers with simpler and more flexible tickets that better suit their needs.” Not my needs, Huw.

And of course you can’t beat David Horne, LNER’s managing director and long time career railwayman, but now well experienced in spinning a positive out of a negative as is LNER’s stock in trade since it became a DfT controlled puppet: “this exciting new pilot is the next step in our plans to overhaul complicated and outdated ticketing options ….. making fares simpler, smarter and fairer, while introducing value for money and modern flexibility …. will encourage more people to choose to travel by rail”.

A new ticket with restricted time availability, albeit with “70min Flex” is categorically not my idea of “modern flexibility”.

And while we’re on David’s ability to spin any PR hype I couldn’t help smile at the stark coincidental contrast in two consecutive posts that appeared on my X timeline on Thursday.

The ASLEF week long strike beginning Monday 5th February (brought about by DfT’s insistence LNER takes up the newly introduced minimum service level legislative options during a one-day strike the previous week – other train companies have shied away seeing it as inflaming an already tinderbox atmosphere of industrial relations) means this unwelcome pilot gets off to a rather appropriate start with no trains running for the first five days. Still, at least we’ll be spared the usual LNER razzmatazz hyperbole launch, and no doubt the cupcakes will keep fresh for a week.

In the immediate future for the 11% of passengers who reportedly buy off-peak tickets, there’s an easy work around the restrictions LNER is bringing in and dressing up as “a better experience” and avoid the whole thing.

If you’re travelling from Kings Cross to Newcastle, then buy a ticket to Manors, the next station up the line, which costs exactly the same as to Newcastle. Similarly for Berwick-upon-Tweed, buy to the next station Reston; and for Edinburgh Waverley buy to the next station, Haymarket and enjoy the continued availability of reasonably priced off-peak tickets at the same price, as can be seen in the two Ticket Vending Machine screens below.

The same applies for Newcastle/Manors and Berwick-upon-Tweed/Reston.

Sadly, few passengers will be aware of this loophole and no third party retailers, train company websites or station booking office staff will offer it.

Instead, from 5th February passengers will see that £87.00 fare has disappeared from the screen leaving £193.90 as the only option…. other than LUMO’s £81.00 Anytime Day Single.

No prizes for guessing which ticket passengers will choose.

Which is a shame as, aside from the time restrictions (which as argued above need to be removed), the about-to-be-abolished off-peak tickets truly do offer “modern flexibility”.

Roger French

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