The consumer organisation (http://www.which.co.uk ) asked the National Rail Enquiries (NRES) telephone helpline and clerks at station ticket offices what the cheapest walk-on (not advance purchase) fares would be for 25 journey scenarios, devised by a rail-fare expert. Overall, only half of the 50 questions were answered correctly. If customers had followed all the advice given, they would have been £1,263.60 worse off.
Bad advice was given for the cheapest fare for a single journey between London and Grantham on a weekday, arriving before 9am. For a ticket bought on the day of travel, both NRES and a King’s Cross station clerk quoted GNER’s £44.50 fare, ignoring a Hull Trains service that leaves 10 minutes earlier and costs just £20.
Six questions about breaking journeys en route were generally answered well, with station staff scoring full marks. But NRES made a real howler when asked if passengers could travel from Southampton to Bristol, then on to Birmingham later the same day. A through single should cost £48, but it quoted separate fares for each leg, pushing the fare up to £91.
Some of the most costly misinformation was given for journeys where season tickets should have been recommended. Passengers making a return journey between Swindon and Penzance twice in the same week could buy a Freedom of the Southwest Rover for £70. But both NRES and station staff quoted £67 per journey, making £134 in total – nearly double the cheapest price.
The NRES website, however, proved to be a much more reliable source of information, answering all questions put to it correctly.
which.co.uk (http://www.which.co.uk ) also checked out ‘the earlier you book, the cheaper the ticket’ claims of five train companies - One, Virgin, First Great Western, Midline Mainline and GNER – over a 12-week period and found that it was not always the case. On some services, ticket prices went up and down, seemingly at random.
Malcolm Coles, Editor, which.co.uk, says:
“The NRES website provides accurate information, so why can’t station clerks and those manning the NRES helpline? Staff training needs to be improved. In the meantime, we’ve devised a checklist, available at which.co.uk (http://www.which.co.uk/
