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Despite concessions First Capital Connect is persevering with its money making off peak restrictions
Last month, we left Captain Deltic in Welwyn Garden city waiting for a reply from First Capital Connect's Customer Care team to three questions.
Outstanding questionsSubmitted to FCC Customer Care 31 May1) The semi fast services from Kings Cross leave at XX.06 and XX.36. will the 16.30 ban apply to the 16.36 as this effectively creates a three hour gap in services open to off peak fares. With a departure so close to the start of the I would have thought an exemption would be in order. 2 If I am leaving WGC after 09.30 but returning during the three hour ban will I be able to buy a peak hour Travelcard from WGC with my Senior Card and what will the price be? 3 Or, will it be cheaper to buy an off-peak travel card and pay the excess for the return during the three hour ban at the Kings Cross ticket office and what will the excess charge be?
Answers received on 18 June1) Regrettably the 1636 Train departing kings Cross will fall within the peak time restrictions and therefore you would need the appropriate standard ticket to use this service. 2) If you make your journey at the times specified you will need to purchase a standard travel card at the cost of £17.10 and there are no railcard discounts. Alternatively an off peak travel card purchased with your railcard would be £8.25. The excess fare would be a standard day single purchased with your railcard, which would cost £4.90. |
As you can see, the answers when they eventually came were not that helpful and misleading. The point about the exemption was missed completely and the excess fare quoted was wrong – the correct answer was £2.90.
Meanwhile my passenger's eye view in the July column and e-Preview had generated a storm of e-mails from Thameslink and Great Northern passengers. And it was clear that FCC had not thought out the detail of their strategy. Nor was much credibility given to the claim that it was all about ‘proactively managing capacity'.
Certainly Transport for London was not best pleased that FCC MD Elaine Holt and her team had introduced the ban without consultation. Elaine herself denies this.
As she told Tony Miles ‘We've been talking about this since December when we won the franchise. We've never run away from it and in every presentation I've done to every user group or council officers I have mentioned it. We consulted in March with London Travelwatch and Passenger Focus in a lot of detail so we followed all the processes, we consulted with who we needed to do and we've never hidden from this.
TfL's involvement began with a letter to Ms Holt from Managing Director London Rail Ian Brown. Ian asked for the changes to be postponed to allow proper consideration of alternative ways of increasing capacity in conjunction with London TravelWatch.
After a reported two further letters brought no change, Mayor of London Ken Livingstone wrote to First Group Chief Executive Moir Lockhead on 21 June. No one does sneering invective like a Ken provoked.
He described FCC's ban as ‘ just a cynical revenue raising exercise designed to maximise profits'. He accused FCC of imposing the restrictions unilaterally, and without proper consultation and asked the company to reconsider the change.
Having rejected FCC's claim that the restrictions were intended to reduce overcrowding during the evening peak, the Mayor also sought confirmation that there is no intention to change conditions for holders of Travelcards. And this is at the heart of TfLs concern, since it is the Travelcard which opens one loophole in the ban.
TfL gets tough‘I would remind you that the purpose of railways in London is for the benefit of Londoners and London 's economy by attracting people to visit London . The management of overcrowding is not simply achieved by dramatic fare increases.' ‘If you are not prepared to be responsive to London and the needs of London 's economy, I am not prepared to support continuance as holder of the new Thameslink and Great Northern Franchise' Ian Brown Managing director London Rail Letter to Elaine Holt June 6 2006 |
Meanwhile I was back in normal Informed Sources, as opposed to stealth passenger, mode. And it was clear that FCC was being a trifle naughty in applying the ban.
Ticket clerks were asking what time passengers were returning and, if it was between 16.30 and 19.00, they were told that they had to buy a full fare ticket. Indeed, when my transport planning chum, and Modern Railways contributor, Reg Harman was asked this question at Hertford North and said that he didn't know, the initial reaction was that in that case he couldn't buy a ticket.
And serious money was involved. The peak Travelcard, which I use when going to events with an early start, costs £17.10 from Welwyn Garden City. After 09.30, a One Day Travelcard bought with a Railcard costs £8.25.
But because the Peak Travelcard is not sold after 09.30, there is no Railcard discount. If I bought one for use in the evening peak the cost would increase by 107%. Something I helpfully pointed out to Elaine Holt
FCC was also providing the public with incomplete information.
Restrictions are based on a series of concentric Zones. The central London Zone B is bounded by West Hampstead on Thameslink and Finsbury Park on Great Northern. In the original version Zone C extended to the TfL boundary at Elstree & Borehamwood, Hadley Wood and Crews Hill. Zone D takes over Northward to Bedford . Peterborough and Cambridge .
Passengers were banned from using discounted tickets only between Zone B and Zone D. Travel between Zone C and Zone D was permitted.
Enter Conditions 15 and 17 of the National Rail Conditions of Carriage, which apply to break of journey. If you have a Travelcard or Cheap Day Return and your train stops in Zone C en route to your destination in Zone D you can claim break of journey. Since your journey restarts in Zone C the restrictions do not apply.
And on Great Northern, in particular, all the stopping trains and some evening peak semi-fasts stop in Zone C on their way to Zone D. There is no requirement to change trains for break of journey to apply.
So why, I asked FCC's Commercial Director Hugh Clancy on 21 June, had they not applied the ban solely to the outer suburban services, particularly since the inner suburban stoppers start emptying as soon as they leave Zone B. Hugh explained that the aim had been to simplify tickets sales and enforcement.
For example, at some stations an outer and a stopper arrive almost simultaneously. Passengers on the fast service might seek to beat the ban by claiming that they had arrived on the other train.
He also conceded that the matrix of restrictions used with the Zone map in the explanatory leaflet, intended to simplify the ban, had only confused matters. Meanwhile new instructions were being sent to ticket staff to clarify the application of the ban.
Certainly evidence from readers suggests that the hard liner of Hertford North had a mirror image in staff at other stations who would advise passengers about the loophole, or coach them in the type of ticket to ask for. This was regarded as dereliction of duty by FCC: early on a management team was sent to Potters Bar to re-educate the dissidents
When I spoke to Hugh, FCC was reviewing the lessons of the flawed implementation of the ban, with changes planned for September. But on June 29 the company announced that the evening peak travel restrictions would be lifted at a number of stations from 10 July 10.
This was agreed at a meeting with London TravelWatch and Passenger Focus on 28 June. In effect, the revised restrictions reflected the stopping patterns of inner suburban and peak semi-fast trains. Thus on Thameslink Zone C now extends to Radlett, on the Great Northern main line to Knebworth and on the Hertford Loop to Watton at Stone..
Following my challenge to Elaine on the doubling of peak costs, FCC is proposing to ATOC a change to the terms of the Peak Day Travelcard. From September it is expected that it will be eligible for Railcard discounts when bought after 09.30.
FCC will also trial a carnet of five standard return tickets, valid in the evening peak and aimed at customers who travel into London regularly but not sufficiently often to justify purchase of a season ticket.
St Albans has been chosen for the pilot scheme because it is a gated station. The current Standard Return between St Albans and London Terminals costs £14.50 and the carnet of five tickets will cost £65 – a 10% discount.
Now in a trade and technical magazine like Modern Railways we have to handle head-and-heart situations like this ticketing FCC-up, dispassionately. If FCC wants to extract more cash from the franchise by restricting non-regulated fares then that is a business decision and we must report it as such. DfT Rail, with its feet to the flames, has confirmed that the evening peak ban was part of the First Group franchise bid, but was not an issue for the Department since the fares are not regulated.
A glance at the premium profile shows why FCC is desperate to get more income out of unregulated fares. In the first year of the new franchise the premium goes up by £8.3 million. But next year (2007-08) Elaine Holt and her team have to find a further £29.8 million – a total premium of £43.9 million on revenue of around £350 million.