Bristol Area Pay-as-you-go Scheme – the first serious attempt at fares reform?

While seemingly everyone has been busily debating the amount of discount that the long-hyped (but yet to appear) new flexible carnet fares might provide, something much more radical is about to happen in the Bristol area from 16 May. Great Western Railway (GWR)’s direct franchise award with the Department for Transport (DfT) from 29 March … Continue reading “Bristol Area Pay-as-you-go Scheme – the first serious attempt at fares reform?”

Oysterless Contactless…

On Thursday 29 August the zonal pay-as-you-go (PAYG) fares system for London was extended to cover Brookmans Park station in Hertfordshire. This is particularly notable because Brookmans Park is the first (and so far, only) station within the system at which Oyster cards are not valid. I’ve taken the opportunity to make some changes to … Continue reading “Oysterless Contactless…”

On-train Catering – could it be better advertised?

Availability and Prominence of information on train catering Does it affect your journey decisions? On-train catering on scheduled train services in Great Britain can be superb, really a reason to make the effort to choose to travel on a particular train operator (TOC) or train. For example, a while back I needed to travel from … Continue reading “On-train Catering – could it be better advertised?”

Welcome to the BR Fares Blog!

When I started the www.brfares.com website back in 2012, the aim was simply to make it easier for people to find out what fares were available for a given rail journey. I wanted to try and present all the information about restrictions, validity etc. in a clear way. The original target audience was really very … Continue reading “Welcome to the BR Fares Blog!”