Passengers who miss their train or want to travel earlier than planned will be able to switch to another service within 70 minutes of their scheduled departure, under a breakthrough in ticketing launched on Tuesday.
LNER (London North Eastern Railway), which operates long-distance services on the East Coast Main Line, is trialling “70-minute semi-flexible” tickets between London King’s Cross, Newcastle, Berwick and Edinburgh.
Passengers who choose the 70-minute tickets will pay about £20 to £25 more than the cheapest fare, which only allows travel on a pre-booked train.
But the new ticket – introduced alongside a further simplification of fares – will be about half the price of a fully flexible ticket, which permits travel up to two days from the chosen date.
The trial will run for two years and is designed to give passengers “peace of mind” and “real-world flexibility” and remove the worry that their ticket will not be valid if they miss a train.
Passengers who have a 70-minute ticket can reserve a seat on an earlier or later train via the LNER app or website. The technology will then automatically “release” any seat reserved on their “missed” train.
The new tickets went on sale on Tuesday for journeys from February 5.
Prices from London to Edinburgh ranged from £69.50 for a fixed ticket, £95.80 for the semi-flexible ticket and £193.90 for the fully flexible ticket in standard class. In first class, the prices were £143.50, £163.50 and £304 respectively.
Similarly, for a journey on February 5 from King’s Cross to Newcastle, the standard class prices being quoted on Tuesday morning were £52.90, £72.90 and £192 – and £110.20, £130.20 and £299.60 in first class.
Under the changes, off peak and super off-peak tickets are being withdrawn. However, super off-peak tickets currently cost more for travel on February 4 than a fixed ticket from February 5.
LNER, which remains under Government control, has been at the forefront of attempts to simplify train ticketing.
It was the first operator to introduce “single leg pricing”, which ended the concept of buying a fixed return ticket. Instead, passengers were given the airline-style freedom to buy two single tickets to and from a destination at a time and price that suited.
LNER said the flexible ticketing system – which will not be available for other journeys on its network, such as to York and Leeds, during the trial – would mean that journeys were “priced more closely to demand”. The aim is to “smooth demand” for services over the course of the day.
David Horne, managing director at LNER, said: “Simplifying fares is vital in making rail travel more attractive. Customers tell us they find fares confusing.
“This exciting new pilot is the next step in our plans to overhaul complicated and outdated ticketing options and we look forward to hearing feedback from our customers.
“We believe that making fares simpler, smarter, and fairer, while introducing value for money and modern flexibility, will encourage more people to choose to travel by rail, the most sustainable travel choice.”
Under the trial, the number of ticket types will be cut from 11 to six – fixed, semi-flexible and fully flexible, in both standard and first class. Railcards can be used with the new tickets.
LNER expects about 10 to 15 per cent of passengers on each of its trains to buy a 70-minute ticket. Prior to the launch of single leg pricing, there were 23 different tickets.
The 70-minute window has been chosen because there are normally trains every hour between London and Edinburgh via Berwick - meaning that passengers can get the next train if they miss their planned journey.
However some travel experts said the new ticket would not be refundable - unlike the existing off-peak fare.
However, most of us had expected the 3 fares to be fully-flexible, semi-flexible & inflexible, in other words, Anytime, Off-Peak & Advance...
— The Man in Seat 61 (@seatsixtyone) January 16, 2024
Rail minister Huw Merriman said: “We are delivering on our commitment to reform the railways, working with operators to provide passengers with simpler and more flexible tickets that better suit their needs.”
The Rail Delivery Group, which represents train operators, has found that 35 per cent of passengers are put off travelling by train because they find it difficult to find the right fare.
There were 23.4m journeys on LNER trains in 2022-23, above pre-pandemic levels, primarily due to an increase in leisure travel.
Last week the Standard reported LNER’s plans to cut the journey times between London and Edinburgh to just over four hours when new timetables are introduced in December.
LNER is due to be hit by strike action by drivers belonging to Aslef on February 2. There will be a series of rolling one-day strikes across the national railways for a week from January 30, in Aslef’s battle over pay.
Alex Robertson, chief executive at the independent watchdog Transport Focus, said: "Transport Focus strongly supports fares reform and it’s right to trial new ideas to see if they work.
"We look forward to hearing how the trial progresses and will be monitoring that it does indeed deliver better value for money tickets for passengers.”
