New Rail Connections: Moving to a New Rail Ticketing System

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Rail Ticketing's Failings

Rail ticket types can be a glaringly bad aspect of todays railway - and it's the one that fills the shop window. Since privatisation, the industry has been fortunate enough to ride the growing market for travel, yet the flourishing market for air travel within the UK shows that the mishmash of opaque products on offer is crying out to be replaced by something better for everyone.

However the rail industry as a whole has demonstrated that it is unable to act cohesively on this, and even seeks to undermine such existing passenger-friendly products as the south east's 'Network Card'.

To some extent the current system is working, in that against expectations, passenger journeys have risen sharply since privatisation. However, many passengers suspect that this may be despite the ticketing structure rather than because of it.

The ambition of providing more rail services has a partner: the ambition to improve the ticketing.

Rail Ticketing: A New Approach

A new approach might involve:

Selling to the passenger as an individual through allocating them an account

Thereby building a positive relationship in which the passenger feels themselves to be a stakeholder in the system and increases the amount they spend on rail travel.

Tracking their identity via a national railcard and use of information technology

The rail industry is already investing heavily in information technology systems to provide services such as ticket purchase and seat reservation. They need to extend this to increase their ability to build partnerships with their customers.

Offer a web interface as the point of contact with the individual

A personalised web page will offer the individual the space and tools to manage their rail travel needs.

Providing participants with an inclusive and flexible travel service

This for journeys of all types, whether one way, return to starting point, or untidy three cornered trips involving several train operators.

Under the current system, allocation of revenues to train operating companies ends up as the passenger's problem. This must change. Models such as the current 'London one day travelcard' provides for a flat rate per day of transport use, and this is another option. Another is a sliding scale based on the amount of rail travel over a set period, or scales relating to payment up-front for unspecified travel.

The current practice of aircraft-style demand management via discounts for advanced booking are less than ideal, being opaque, awkward and leave people's travel prone to manipulation by the train operating companies.

Put an end to the passenger compensation culture

The system will often know if the individual has been exposed to a late running train or missed connection and without further drama will be able credit their travel account according to set parameters. The passenger should also have the option to choose lower fares in exchange for foregoing compensation for late running.

The new system must be able to contribute to demand management for peak times

Quota rather than price can become the demand management tool of first choice: in this case 'Quota' implies that participants have an allocation of 'Peak time' travel to allow for occasional use of peak services at their account rate. (An economist will object here: if a seat can be sold at a higher price, then discounting it at any time is unsound. The greater objective is to provide a flexible, competitive product that grows the number of passengers using rail, and increases the overall income by providing a more attractive and flexible product)

The overall aim: to grow the market for rail travel

The current ticketing system exposes the railways to ridicule. It needs to be changed, to use 21st century IT tools to transform rail travel into a coherent and transparent product.

In the five years since privatisation, parts of the industry have shown imagination, but as a whole there has not been a willingness to move towards country wide customer-focussed ticketing.

In the case of the south-east's network railcard, which has been under seige, the industry has shown rather the opposite.

External incentives may need to be applied to make progress here, and one of the key factors is the amount of public money that the rail industry accepts as investment. This provision can be tied to improvements to the ticketing system ... an advantage in the new approach is that it can act as an augmentation of the current ticketing system: it can be introduced to run parallel with the present system.

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