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Economy Class & Beyond

You are here: Home / Rail / LNER to trial new rail fares

LNER to trial new rail fares

30/08/2019 by Kevincm

One of the odditities of train travel in the UK are return rail fares. A perfect example of this is one of the routes I use – London Marylebone to Brimingham.

If I brought a single ticket – it would cost £31.30.

a screenshot of a website

However, if I brought a return ticket, it costs a £31.40 – a grand total of 10p extra.

a screenshot of a train schedule

10p extra for a return ticket is a bargain. Not so much if you’re just buying singles – Data – National Rail Enquiries 

With the fare formulas stuck since the privatisation of the rail network – there has recently been a fare review to attempt to look at some of these “quirks” and to try to bring sense to the rail ticketing system

LNER will begin a trial in January 2020 of a new fare system designed to make travelling on trains simpler and clearer.

a woman using a phone to pay for tickets

The train company will remove return tickets will be on trial routes in their place passengers will be able to purchase cheaper single-leg tickets, which will be more in line with half the price of a return journey.

This trial will apply to walk-up tickets, on selected routes on the LNER network. The routes selected for this trial are:

  • London to Leeds
  • London to Newcastle
  • London to Edinburgh

In the Department for Transport’s press release, they give the example of a Super off-peak ticket.

  • Super Off-Peak Single – £146.40
  • Super Off-Peak Return – £147.40
  • During the trial  – Super Off-Peak Single- £73.70 (two singles to make a return ticket, £147.40)

In theory, this should allow better combinations with other advance tickets to lower the cost even further

In quotes

Secretary of State for Transport, Grant Shapps said:

These announcements are vital for providing passengers with a more convenient, flexible and fairly priced experience.

We are also taking action to simplify fares as LNER begins single-leg fares trials next year. This will save many people money with substantially cheaper single tickets, boost customer confidence, and ensure passengers up and down the country get the modern transport service they expect.

LNER Commercial Director, Suzanne Donnelly, said:

“At LNER we are always looking at ways to make travel simpler and smoother for our customers. This trial will be the first step towards giving customers more confidence they are buying the correct ticket for their needs and ultimately making fares simpler.”

Value for the consumer? Shop around

a train on the tracks
It always pays to hunt around when shopping for railway tickets – even with the new ticketing trail – LNER Azuma – Image, LNER

As usual, shop around when buying train tickets. Consider using tools like Split ticketing or Advance rail tickets if you can afford to lock yourself to a particular train.

However, this could bring the farcical single ticket pricing to the end on the rail network.

There is a downside to these changes however – that the rail companies could lose the sweet revenue of an expensive single ticket. How they will seek to make up the money lost will be something every passenger needs to keep an eye out for.


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Filed Under: Rail, Rail Travel

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