A radical overhaul of rail fares is to be trialled to guarantee passengers the “best possible deal” every time they travel.
Certain fares, for long, connecting journeys will be removed from the system as cheaper alternatives exist. This will remove the need to passengers to split tickets.
Travellers will also be shown the best available price for a journey, regardless of whether they are buying a return ticket or two single tickets.
Passengers on trains between London and Sheffield or Scotland will be among the first to benefit from the trial.
The trials are due to start in May on selected routes, including CrossCountry, Virgin Trains’ east and west coast services and East Midlands.
The plans outlined by the Rail Delivery Group (RDG) also include a “10-point plan” that include: “getting rid of jargon, informing customers when a machine will start to sell cheaper off-peak tickets and making clear what types of tickets machines do and do not sell.”
RDG confirmed all the improvements to ticket machines will be in place by the end of this year, several by the summer.
Former Eurostar director and now VP, American Express Global Business Travel, Northern Europe, Jason Geall, said buying rail tickets has been “unfairly complex” for too long. "This initiative is very good news, though long overdue,” said Geall. “The number of different ticketing combinations and the large number of different train operator companies make the system difficult to understand for many people.
“In future, travellers and agents should be able to book a return journey – Glasgow to Lyon, for example – across different TOCs on one ticket in a single transaction. The technology is there to do it, pan-European collaboration between TOCs, technology companies and governments is required to achieve this objective.
“In the meantime, we will work with closely with partners to make sure the benefits of this new initiative are understood and integrated into managed travel programmes,” he said.
Jacqueline Starr, RDG MD of customer experience, said: “Working with government, we’re determined to overhaul the system to cut out red-tape, jargon and complication to make it easier for customers to buy fares they can trust, including from ticket machines.”
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