Network
Contributing Writer rail@bauermedia.co.uk
THE Department for Transport has quietly dropped its plan for Great British Railways to create a centralised online ticket retailer.
A formal announcement has not been made, but the news slipped out on December 14 2023 in a routine online note about document changes, where the DfT noted a change to its May 2021 White Paper - the Williams-Shapps Plan for Rail.
The DfT said it had been “updated to reflect that government is no longer pursuing plans to deliver a centralised Great British Railways online rail ticket retailer”.
The move had been criticised on the basis that all the current train operators have their own platforms, alongside 19 third-party retailers, who would be potentially affected.
The DfT added: “The private sector plays an important role in driving innovation and attracting more customers to the railway. As stated in the Bradshaw Address, we are focused on opening up railway data and systems, lowering barriers to entry for independent rail ticket retailers to improve passenger experience.
“Train operators will continue to retail to passengers online alongside existing third-party retailers, while we develop measures to spur further competition in the online rail ticket retail market to make things better for passengers.”
The U-turn came just days after the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) revealed that it has written to seven unnamed third-party online sellers that it discovered were ‘price dripping’ - where additional charges are added during the booking process (RAIL 999).
The biggest retailer is Trainline, accounting for 60% of online sales. Trainline shares, which dropped by a quarter when the DfT’s ‘one retailer’ plan was announced in May 2021, rose by 14.5% in early trading following the DfT’s December announcement.
The centralised ticketi
