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Which? Research into National Rail Enquiries service 'Fare’s fair, if you can find it'

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24 February 2011

Train passengers in the UK are missing out on the best deals because of poor advice from station staff and National Rail Enquiries, says Which?

Undercover researchers from the consumer watchdog asked for advice on the cheapest fare for 150 train journeys*. In each case, passengers could save money by:

* Using a cheaper, slower alternative route;
* Taking a slightly later train to take advantage of off-peak fares;
* Buying a ticket that lets you stop off en route rather than paying for two single trips; or
* Buying a season ticket rather than multiple single tickets.

59 per cent of station ticket clerks and 43 per cent of National Rail Enquiries operators failed to advise passengers about the cheaper option. No correct answers could be found in one easy step on Nationalrail.co.uk for any of the scenarios used**.

Nine times out of ten, a passenger hoping to make two round trips from Oxford to Cardiff in a week was advised to buy two return tickets costing £200 each. Just one clerk advised that buying a weekly season ticket would save the passenger £112***.

A Which? survey also revealed only half of train passengers felt confident that they knew how to get the best possible fare for their journey****. Around half (54 per cent) were satisfied overall with train services in the UK*****.

Which? chief executive, Peter Vicary-Smith, says:

“Train operators seem blind to the fact that their ticketing systems are too complicated – if people who do this for a living can’t find the cheapest fare, what hope do passengers have?

“We’d like to see much clearer signposting to help passengers find the best deals available, whether they’re buying tickets online, over the phone or at a station.”

Which? experts have published a guide to finding the best deals online at www.which.co.uk/cheaptickets
Notes to Editor

The full report, Why train fares don’t add up, is from the March 2010 issue of Which? magazine. For a copy of the report, further information or to request an interview, please contact Judith Adams on judith.adams@which.co.uk or 020 7770 7565.

*Which? used 15 different journey scenarios devised by Rail columnist and train fares expert Barry Doe. Each scenario was repeated 10 times in November 2010 – five times with clerks in stations across England and five times on the National Rail Enquiries telephone helpline. Which? also tested the scenarios at nationalrail.co.uk.

**No correct answers could be found in one easy step on nationalrail.co.uk. By ticking ‘include slower trains’, the correct answer could be found in four scenarios. But in eight scenarios, passengers would need special knowledge, such as knowing exactly what station to insert in the ‘travel via’ box (under ‘Advanced search’) or checking the season ticket calculator to see if a weekly season ticket would be a cheaper option. The remaining three scenarios would require more knowledge to secure the best deal, e.g. understanding the terms & conditions for each ticket type available and choosing accordingly.

***To travel first class, a weekly season ticket from Oxford to Cardiff cost £288 at the time the research was carried out, compared to £200 for a return journey.

****Which? surveyed 2,572 members of the public (Great British residents aged 16+), between 16 and 29 November 2010. 1,515 had travelled by train in the last 12 months and were asked about their experiences.

*****This is significantly lower than the 84 per cent satisfaction rating reported by the government-funded National Passenger Survey. The two surveys use different methodologies and cannot be directly compared. The Which? survey is smaller (1,500 passengers compared to 50,000) but the consumer champion believes it more accurately reflects people’s experiences of train travel as a whole. The National Passenger Survey’s overall satisfaction figure is based on only one question about the station and train journey someone has used just before they complete the survey. Which? asked train passengers who had travelled by train in the last year how satisfied they were overall with the train services available to them in the UK.