Early signs from LNER’s ‘simpler fares’ trial, introduced earlier this year, are positive, the operator’s Managing Director David Horne told Transport for North’s Rail North committee.
The trial, which builds on LNER’s earlier introduction of single leg pricing, saw the abolition of off-peak and super off-peak fares on flows between London and Newcastle, Berwick-upon-Tweed and Edinburgh. On these flows, LNER now offers only three fare options – an Anytime fare, an Advance fare, and a new 70min Flex semi-flexible advance ticket, which is booked for a specific train but can be used on trains up to 70 minutes either side of it. Mr Horne said ‘many thousands of customers’ had been choosing this new option. He said take-up from people buying through the LNER website had been really positive, although there was still work to do with customers using third party retailers to buy tickets.
Assessing the impact of the trial overall, Mr Horne said LNER had not seen any downsides from the empirical evidence on long-distance flows and said the operator believes the trial is working in terms of giving customers a product they want and also a simpler structure, tackling some of the complexity the rail industry has had hitherto with its fares structure. The trial began in February and is due to run for two years.
Meanwhile, Mr Horne told the committee that LNER plans to introduce additional direct services between King’s Cross and Bradford next year, following completion of additional platform at Forster Square station, with the Department for Transport having granted permission to bid for these extra services to be included in the May 2025 timetable.
The major recast of the East Coast main line timetable, which was intended to take place in December 2024, has been deferred; Mr Horne described the new timetable as ‘vital’ and said that in December, ahead of the recast, LNER plans to introduce additional York to Newcastle services to plug gaps in regional connectivity. Modern Railways understands the major recast will not take place in May 2025, with December 2025 currently a potential date for implementation.
