by mdvle
johnthefireman wrote: Confusing - but nothing to the confusion which has arisen over fares. There are thousands of different fares and types of fare which bear no relation to common sense and are often counter-intuitive. The adoption of airline practice where a walk-on fare can be far more expensive than a fare booked in advance runs counter to the British culture of using trains - people expect to arrive at a station and buy a ticket at a fair price. While you mght be able to predict and book your holiday in Spain or your business trip to New York weeks or months in advance, the sort of trips which many people make by train are not so predictable.The thing people forget is that BR started this process. While we can't say a BR existing today would have the same ticketing system, there would be something along the same lines for the simple reason that it is the best way to maximise revenue, and as long as the demand is there (which it is) and people want to keep their taxes low (and hence subsidies low) the railway needs to maximise revenue.