Virgin Trains means to dramatically cut the cost of off-peak single journeys from London to Manchester in January 2009.
Plans are ”well advanced” to sell tickets for as little as ”5 ($10) on the West Coast Main Line - which continues on from Manchester to Glasgow ” but only about 15% of off-peak seats would be offered at the knock-down price, amounting to about 45 seats per train.
Virgin is also implementing technology allowing passengers to print their ticket at home or have an e-ticket sent to their mobile phone, while switching to a ”yield management-style pricing model” for web fares, advertising tickets from the cheapest price as the budget airlines do.
”With the new Virgin high-frequency timetable starting in January 2009 pricing is one of the ways we”ll be looking to fill extra seats,” said a Virgin spokesman.
”With our e-ticketing services hopefully coming this summer that also brings flexibility, and as a result of these things we”re sharpening the competition with these prices ” we”re looking at ”5 for a single, which will be subject to availability.
”A lot of our business travellers find they can travel off-peak. If your meeting finishes just after lunch of course you can take advantage of these fares ” they”re single tickets, so you”re not locked into booking a return, you can mix and match.”
Virgin is also lengthening 52 Pendolino trains with plans to increase seating capacity by 15m ” from 20.5m to 35m - by 2012.
The company”s London-Manchester journey time currently averages 2hr20mins, and that will come down to 2hrs with the new timetable after Network Rail has remodelled the complicated track system around Rugby and added lines to the Trent Valley Main Line between Tamworth and Litchfield.
”We”ve also ironed out the teething problems with our new Pendolino trains and performance is a generally a lot better,” added the Virgin spokesman.
With train fares set to rise by more than inflation during the next five years, this price slash provides a morsel of good news for rail travellers as it should pressurise other operators to cut their own fares.
Virgin was bullish about the competition”s possible reaction however: ”Let”s see what they do ” you might get some bargain basement coach fare for ”5, but it may not be as comfortable and certainly won”t be as fast.”