Network
rail@bauermedia.co.uk
THE Government is under fresh pressure to speed up a wholesale reform of rail fares, after a new Which? mystery shopper report revealed that passengers can be charged up to 52% more if they buy tickets from station platform machines instead of going online.
It will be six years next month since the Office of Rail and Road conducted its own investigation into ticket machines, but this latest damning report shows that little has been done to work out fair prices.
The Which? study, published on January 18, comes two months after the policy U-turn on ticket office closures, which has protected vulnerable passengers who may not have access to computers or mobile phones to obtain advice on bargains and split ticketing.
Trust is also undermined by the Which? revelations that the best-value fares are unavailable or hidden in a bewildering array of fare options. Online retailers such as Trainline also charge a booking fee for advance tickets.
Rory Boland, editor of Which? Travel, said: “The price differences we found were simply astounding. Huge numbers of us are potentially paying significantly more than we need to.
“Elderly people without internet access have little choice but to run the gauntlet of ticket machines that either don’t offer the best prices or make it difficult to find the appropriate fares.”
Which? was disappointed with the response from train operators, adding: “Currently, just one in six of the 1,766 stations under the DfT’s control has a full-time ticket office, 40% are staffed part-time, and 43% don’t have a ticket office at all.”
Last October, the consumer watchdog sent mystery shoppers to 15 stations (each run by a different train operator) and checked the price of 75 journeys from a ticket machine against the price available from the UK’s biggest ticket site, Trainline.
At each machine, attempts were made to buy the cheapest one-way ticket for travel that same day, the following morning,and in three weeks’ time.
Which? found that online fares were cheaper around three-quarters of the time, and that on average same-day journeys cost a hefty 52% more from machines.
Examples included a same-day, one-way ticket from Holmes Chapel in Cheshire to London - £66 at a machine compared with Trainline’s £26 split-ticket option.
Similarly, a same-day, one-way ticket from Northampton to Cardiff was £107 from a machine, two-and-a-half times the £43 available online.
Which? also found the services offered by different ticket machines coul
