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Difference in c2c & TfL Fares |
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Written by Steven
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Wednesday, 18 February 2009 15:16 |
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Had photo taken with Tunde of Passenger Focus outside Laindon station on Monday to highlight a quite astounding difference in fares, depending on who you by your ticket from. Currently, c2c charges £11.50 for a single between Laindon and Kings Cross (2008 fare was £11.30), while the fare charged by London Underground for the journey between Kings Cross and Laindon is £8.80 (2008 fare was £8.50). The fare quoted on the National Rail website is £10.50. (A similar difference in fares would apply for travel from Thurrock stations to TfL stations)
Transport for London (TfL) aparently have an agreement concerning pricing which is intended to ensure that all operators price the journey in the same way and take a predetermined share of the revenue from each journey. Unfortunately, the agreement does not specify the formula which should be used. But TfL believes that it has always been understood that the price to be charged was the one which offered best value to the passenger.
c2c's trains run in parallel with those of the Underground between central London and Upminster. Tickets between the two routes are completely interchangeable, and it is possible for passengers to change trains at Upminster, Barking, West Ham or Fenchurch Street, regardless of the ticket held. Therefore, it charges the sum of c2c's Laindon - Upminster fare (£4.80) and its own Upminster - Kings Cross (Zones 1-6) fare (£4.00), a total of £8.80.
c2c's practice, however, has been to add its own Laindon - London Terminals fare (£7.50) to the Underground's Zone 1 fare to cover the leg from Fenchurch Street to Kings Cross (£4.00), giving a total of £11.50 - a difference of £3, or roughly 35%. Similar differentials exist in respect of the prices for other types of ticket, such as day returns.
c2c argues that, in order to take advantage of the cheaper fare, passengers should alight and rebook at Upminster. But the National Fares Manual states that as you can change trains on c2c, First Capital Connect and National Express East Anglia services before you get to London the price should be to the interchange point en route. So, for example, for a Stevenage to Oxford Circus fare, First Capital Connect would charge the Stevenage - Finsbury Park fare together with the tube fare from Finsbury Park instead of from Kings Cross irrespective of which route you travel. A round table meeting of Passenger Focus, London Travel Watch, c2c and DfT is planned to come to an agreement on how the fares should be charged. Hopefully a formula can be agreed that applies a single fare to these type of journey, and that fare will be the best avaliable fare for the paseenger, especially in these times of financial uncertainty.
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Last Updated on Wednesday, 18 February 2009 15:31 |
