Season tickets - only valid for set journey - why?

[NoOnions]

Dear All,

I'll probably answer my own question here, but I'll ask all the same and I'll be interested to see everyone's thoughts.

I currently spend £3,060 pa to travel from Rainham to London (Cannon Street). Not cheap, but the service is pretty reliable and the trains are generally very clean.

However, if I want to go to, say, Faversham or Herne Bay, I have to pay (with a Gold Card discount if off peak).

Why does my season ticket not allow me to go the same distance the other way on a line (or indeed cross-country)?

I'm assuming that the reasons will be, for example:

1. Imaging how complicated it would be to work out each person's entitlement to travel - the railway staff would never know if your ticket was valid.

2. Programing the system to cope with it would be almost impossible.

3. Capacity planning. With the current system SE Trains know roughly how many people are traveling between two points at peak time.

4. I'm sure that there are many, many other reasons why this will not work

Perhaps a zone season ticket would work, just as it does for the tube network?

Having said that, I suspect that for the use I'd get out of it (say, 10 times a year, at weekends) the extra I'd be charged for it would not make it worth while.

Feel free to point out all the flaws in what I've written above but go easy, simply 'cos it's my Birthday tomorrow! ;D

Regards,

NoOnions

[chapelwood]

Jun 23, 2009 18:43:26 GMT NoOnions said:

I currently spend £3,060 pa to travel from Rainham to London (Cannon Street). Not cheap, but the service is pretty reliable and the trains are generally very clean.
However, if I want to go to, say, Faversham or Herne Bay, I have to pay (with a Gold Card discount if off peak).
Why does my season ticket not allow me to go the same distance the other way on a line (or indeed cross-country)?

It does allow you to travel to or from any station on a permitted route between Rainham and London - so you can go to other Southern London termini (Charing Cross, Victoria, City Thameslink). You can go to or from any of the stations on the various routes via Dartford, as well as various other routes in South London (even Sundridge Park). You can even go to Croydon (via Victoria, or via Beckenham Junction and Crystal Palace).
But if season tickets were available for travel the same distance the other way, everyone would get a ticket from a station half way along their route (in your case, you'd get a ticket from say Farningham Road to Cannon Street, on the basis that it would be valid the same distance the other way, to Rainham), and Southeastern would presumably charge £3060 pa for such a ticket.
Chapelwood

[jumpedup]

Jun 23, 2009 19:36:04 GMT chapelwood said:

You can even go to Croydon (via Victoria, or via Beckenham Junction and Crystal Palace).

I didn't know that - I know you can use a Faversham -> London Terminals ticket to go to Greenhithe (for Bluewater) but am struggling to think of a valid route from Faversham to London that would go via Croydon (and thus be acceptable use of the ticket). Does this mean that I can get the train from Victoria to Clapham Junction without paying more?

[greenicing]

On a not entirely unrelated topic, would it feasible for an oyster type system to operate with season tickets - you still pay for a year's worth in advance but only get charged for the days you actually use - and not as much for of peak services.

[O.V.S.Bulleid]

Any solution can be constructed - but it will cost a lot of money as it will almost certainly have to be backwards compatible to the existing revenue and accountancy systems.

• Zonal solutions are being planned.
  
• Oyster isn't a good idea - but "user safe" electronic ticketing is.
  
• Flexible pricing should be introduced as it has in many other transport environments - so "total journey" carnets, loyalty rewards, automatically calculated "best deals" - and so on
  

It will not happen under the current regulatory system (DfT) that acts as a judge and jury on what they believe is good for the country.

Yours sincerely
O.V.S.Bulleid

[chapelwood]

Jun 24, 2009 9:47:11 GMT jumpedup said:

Jun 23, 2009 19:36:04 GMT chapelwood said:

You can even go to Croydon (via Victoria, or via Beckenham Junction and Crystal Palace).

I didn't know that - I know you can use a Faversham -> London Terminals ticket to go to Greenhithe (for Bluewater) but am struggling to think of a valid route from Faversham to London that would go via Croydon (and thus be acceptable use of the ticket). Does this mean that I can get the train from Victoria to Clapham Junction without paying more?

Yes - if you use the online Routeing Guide
www.atoc.org/rsp/
and click Routeing Guide in the left hand menu.
One permitted map for Chatham Group (the Routeing Point for Rainham) to London is Map LR. This takes you from Chatham to Beckenham Junction, then to Victoria vis Streatham, with a loop from Crystal Palace to Streatham via Croydon. So Rainham - Beckenham Junction - Crystal Palace - East or West Croydon - Streatham Common - Clapham Junction - Victoria is a permitted route.
It is suggested, if you intend to use odd routes, that you try to understand the Routeing Guide, and take printouts of the relevant routes and maps in case conductors and inspectors don't believe you.
Chapelwood