£700million is being wasted by people rebooking train seats after missing their prebooked journeys, according to research from rail ticket app, Seatfrog. Every year, two-thirds of the 1.8bn rail tickets sold in the UK are advance tickets requiring passengers to take the specific train they are booked on.
For the 42% of people forced to rebook their train tickets due to changed travel plans, these restrictions carry a hefty price, with 65% of passengers spending up to £100 to buy a new ticket. 44% of passengers admit they’ve missed a train.
Seatfrog has launched a Train Swap feature to enable people to change their train from £2.50.
Iain Griffin, CEO and co-founder of Seatfrog said, “It’s easy to buy a cheap, advance ticket, but it’s complicated, costly and stressful to change tickets if our plans change.
"This lack of rail flexibility means people are leaving dates, missing gigs, cutting work events short or finding themselves stuck on the concourse when they could be putting the kids to bed."
Train Swap is initially rolling out across the Northern trains network before it expands across the rest of UK rail.
Mark Powles, commercial and customer director at Northern, said: “Advance Purchase tickets offer the best prices for those who can book before the day of travel, but circumstances can and do change and it’s great that we’re now able to offer customers the chance to switch trains via Seatfrog rather than have to purchase a new ticket.”
