Railway station staff 'quote higher fares'

Railway station staff 'quote higher fares'

Train passengers are being given inaccurate fare advice by rail station staff and could be paying more than double the cheapest train fare when buying a ticket, an investigation has revealed.

A study carried out by consumer group Which? showed that two-thirds of station clerks failed to quote passengers the cheapest available walk-on fare. Where there was a choice of train company, Which? investigators were quoted the more expensive fare 27 times out of 50, with 80% of ticket offices ignoring the cheaper option.

Posing as rail passengers, the consumer group also questioned call centre staff at National Rail Enquiries. Four out of 10 staff failed to quote the cheapest fare.

Martyn Hocking, editor of Which? magazine, said: "If you just want to know the cheapest way to get from A to B, you'd expect staff at the station ticket office or on the end of the rail enquiries helpline to be able to tell you.

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"It's not acceptable that passengers could be paying well over the odds because of poor advice. Rail firms must ensure that staff are properly trained and that fare information is clear."

Which? investigators devised 20 possible rail journeys and asked call centre and station staff to quote walk-on ticket prices and provide information about breaking journeys.

For some journeys, station clerks quoted more than double the cheapest available walk-on option. When asked about the cheapest way to make a journey with an overnight stop en route, more than half of ticket office and call centre staff failed to provide accurate information.

The Association of Train Operating Companies refuted the Which? findings, calling the report "seriously misleading".

Chief executive, Michael Roberts, said: "Independent research last year, using a sample of passengers 50 times the size used by Which? and based on the kind of questions most commonly asked by passengers, found that the correct information on rail fares was given 99% of the time.

"To help us improve how we handle queries we have asked Which? to provide us with the actual questions it posed but, for the second time, the magazine has declined to do so."

Regulated train fares, including commuter fares, anytime day singles and returns, short distance walk-on tickets, and long distance off peak fares are set to fall by 0.4% next year because of deflation.

However, unregulated rail fares (advance and anytime fares on long distance routes) are predicted to rise in order to compensate rail companies for the shortfall.

Which? investigators also tested the reliability of lost property offices at 16 railway stations across the country. Five stations – Manchester Piccadilly, London Waterloo, London King's Cross, Sheffield, and Glasgow Central – failed to contact the owners when handed a coat and wallet clearly labelled with a name and phone number.

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