£32.90! You're having a laugh!!

Steely has decided to revive this particular blog so he can just refer people to it. This might shorten some of his regular letters of complaint!

Steely can scarcely believe what he paid recently (on 12th September) for a trip to London, during the day. £32.90 for a Peak Day Travelcard!! He's more used to paying £14.85 for an Off-peak Day Travelcard with Network Card Discount.

The difference? Wanting to reach a destination in South London by 11:30, when an event started (OK, I'll admit it, it was the BioRegional Open Day at the BedZED development). I simply didn't want to miss the start of the day - and also thought I'd do a bit of fact-finding by trying out a "rush-hour" service. The point is that a Network Railcard can only be used from 10:00. Other discounted fares (I believe Cheap Day Returns etc. are available from 09:00 - at least, I think so, it could be arriving in London after 10:00 - this information isn't easy to find on the website provided by that appalling company First Capital Connect (FCC), which I find, frankly, astonishing).

I'll update this post if I find the notes I think I took at the time, but I do have a receipt and it seems I arrived at the station in time to buy a ticket from the machine at 08:37 in order to catch the 08:45. This train was nowhere near full. Maybe passengers are being priced off this train, but unfortunately there was also a derailment on 12th September on a line into Cambridge, which may have reduced the number of passengers trying to catch the 08:45 service.

Nevertheless, the 08:45 would get someone to a desk or a meeting in central London or the City by soon after 10:00 (arrives King's Cross 09:42). Since it is the same price, though, you may as well catch the 07:45 to get to your desk by 09:00. The point is that FCC have introduced a new peak evening period between 16:30 and 19:01 - more on this from the Cambridge MP, David Howarth here. Now, anyone travelling to London later is likely to come back much later, so what they could have done instead was provide cheaper fares on the later morning services. Ditto early morning services, as early birds are more likely to knock off early and avoid the crowded services after 16:30.

For many people it is acceptable to turn up at 10:00 or later and we all know someone who likes to get to the office while its quiet. Indeed many office functions (e.g. IT support) now rely on staggered staff working times, and many offices have formal or informal "flexitime" arrangements. Sometimes there are even formal arrangements to ensure cover over a period longer than any one person is likely to work regularly, e.g. 07:30 - 18:30.

But of course, FCC wouldn't boost their profits this way.

The train I caught back on 12th Sept (I think the 17:15) wasn't full either, so FCC may have successfully priced people off that one. How clever!