Ethos Public Relations Manchester

The price of rail tickets

by Sean

Long before the McNulty Report was published at the tail end of last week, I already thought that some train tickets were too expensive whilst others were too cheap. Sat on the pretty empty 14.35 from Manchester Piccadilly to London Euston, the media coverage of the report had focussed on how Sir Roy identified that: “The current structure does not do some of the important things that a pricing structure should do ... it appears that some fares are set below the level which passengers would be prepared to pay.”

In general, prices should reflect the real cost of offering a service. Call me old fashioned, but running a train service should be a public service and should be priced so that the public can afford it. And affordability is not the same as ‘as cheap as possible’. On the Virgin Trains’ service to Manchester tickets seem to range from £17 single to London to £139.50, if bought on the day. Now no one can tell me that the service can be run efficiently, sustainably and safely for less than twenty pounds. Especially not if as few tickets were sold as was the case on my 14.35 service. Some consumers are just getting the service too cheaply. But why should this matter, ‘everyone likes a bargain’ and first come, first served means these low prices are not open to all. But to address Sir Roy’s concerns about the relative costs of UK train fares compared to European counterparts, everyone should be paying a fare that better reflects the cost of the service.

But the essence of public service to my mind is that it should be there when you need it. Booking (and paying) in advance might make sense on a holiday flight to the Alps or on a hand built sofa in shocking pink. But the basis of our train services is that it is a ‘turn up and go service’, and this is enshrined in the franchise agreements with train operating companies. Train travel isn’t just another consumer product. For many people train travel is a ‘must have’ not a leisure experience. The current pricing structure penalises small business like ours that need to go with little warning to a client meeting or, arguably worse, to those people who need to go and visit friends or family that are taken ill or befallen some other mishap.

McNulty has brought many issues to the fore in his report, none more important to my mind than that of price. Not only do we need a debate on high prices, but we need to think about low prices too and adequately funding our services. We need a real debate about paying adequately for our services (and as an aside, I think that goes far beyond the price of train tickets, to Fairtrade commodities and to funding our health service or council services).

Sir Roy McNulty has said it in a 320 page report but my summary is a little bit shorter. It is just not sustainable to pay too little for things.

*Photo courtesy of GOCO

Posted at 2:19pm on 23^rd May 2011