I have read lots of threads on this and none provide any clear replies. Given that you have now introduced ticket scanners at Waterloo, pease advise when you will be introducing Flexible Season Tickets for part time workers?
If no specific date is available please advise why it is taking so long to implement, whether there is a current live project and what is the ‘go live date’ for that project.
I’m afraid that is not an acceptable response. Look at the forum replies in response to the ‘carnet initiative’. 5% discount is simply unacceptable when 5 day commuters have a significantly higher discount for purchasing an annual season ticket. The carnet ticket is a massive shortcoming and a moulded loophole to fudge providing what was promised in your franchise agreement.
So my question again - when will you provide a flexible season ticket that matches the discount of an annual season ticket for part time commuters?
i think that's actually unreasonable.
An annual season ticket offers a 36% discount assuming you work 5 days per week, don't have holidays and don't work bank holidays. It carries a 28% discount if you have 4 weeks holiday.
A 3 or 6 monthly ticket offers a 17%-26% discount depending on holidays.
A monthly ticket offers a 29% discount if you are working the whole month.
A weekly ticket offers an 18% discount.
I agree with you that the Carnet discount is pathetic (5% discount). Matching the discount on the weekly ticket would be reasonable and would lower the price to £134.
Of course what would be better is to use the data from the touch tickets to automatically calculate a discount based on volume through the year.
Hi icowden.
Not sure what you think is unreasonable?
I used to benefit from an annual discount when I commuted 5 days a week but now that I have move to a part time commute I don’t get discount on travel and am forced to travel later and finish later to benefit from off peak cheaper travel.
I think expecting a 36% discount on a 5 day ticket is probably unreasonable. The reason that you get a large discount is that you are effectively buying a years worth of tickets in bulk and upfront (i.e. before inflation has been applied).
I do agree with you that the amount of discount on a Carnet is pretty pathetic, and I do agree that it should be more aligned with the discount offered on weekly tickets (which is basically what you are buying but in a distributed fashion).
In an ideal world of course, we would use a smart card as needed and receive discounts based on the number of times travelled over a period of time (e.g. a year). But that nirvana is still a long way away.
Giving it more thought perhaps a logical extension that would enable SWR to bring the discount more into line with Gold Care commuters is something like a Carnet 200 where you purchase much higher numbers of tickets in advance.
I do feel your pain in that I have been working much more from home over the last few months and often find that my monthly season is pointless.