New UK rail rule could throw business travel off track

UK rail officials are looking for a corporate carve-out to a major ticket refund rule change after protests that it could drive business travellers off the train network.

From 1 April, purchasers of Anytime or off-peak fares will have to apply for a refund by 2359 hours on the day before date of travel. At present, refunds (less a £10 administration fee) can be requested up to 28 days after travel. 

“That is going to be a massive detractor,” said Wayne Lappage, global commodity manager travel and expense for the IT service management company Yunex Traffic. “It’s going to be another reason not to get on a train when we’re trying to push our people on to them for corporate social responsibility and sustainability reasons. The rail companies often argue they are not getting their share of the cake but they are making it more difficult.”

Steve Banks, CEO of the travel management company Beyond Business Travel, described the change as a potential “massive own goal” for UK rail. He estimated that 50 per cent of UK rail tickets bought through corporate travel channels are Anytime tickets “because often travellers don’t know the time of their return journey.” Banks also estimated that “60 per cent of Anytime tickets are cancelled on or after the day of travel because travellers know they can get a full refund.

“This is a significant change that has only come into the public domain in the last month. It needs more consultation, and corporates need more time to communicate to their travellers,” said Banks. Without such communication, he added, corporate clients will lose money through unused tickets going unrefunded. Banks advised travel managers to change policies immediately to require travellers to request refunds before date of travel.

However, Banks fears there could be other unintended consequences, including losing travellers from the managed travel process or from using rail all together. “It may change behaviour to buy on the day at the station, which means more expense claims and less data than if booked through the TMC,” he said. “And if travellers lose £250 on an unrefunded ticket from Manchester to London they may blame the travel manager or say that next time they will buy a low-cost carrier ticket or jump in a car.”

Speaking on Tuesday at a conference co-hosted by TMC representative organisations the Business Travel Association and Advantage Travel Partnership, Paul Bowden, commercial director for Rail Delivery Group, which represents Britain’s rail operators, acknowledged the challenges and said colleagues will meet the BTA on Monday 16 March to find solutions.

Bowden explained that post-travel refund claims are open to fraud if passengers manage to complete their journey without having their ticket scanned at ticket gates or by a collector. “The amount of revenue at risk through refund fraud is £40 million per year at least,” said Bowden. “This isn’t a change that was designed for the business travel market. We recognise the point and we have heard some quite strong arguments from the BTA around how this will impact business travel.

“We recognise there are processes in place in the B2B market for uncollected tickets. We are not proposing to undermine those processes. We want to make sure there is continuity so tickets that are uncollected can still follow that same process.”

Banks believes a way can be found to distinguish refund claims for tickets bought through corporate channels from those bought by consumers. However, in addition to a corporate solution, he called for a deferral in the change to conditions of carriage until the end of 2026.