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pcernie
Legend
Joined: Sun Apr 26, 2009 12:30 pm Posts: 45931 Location: Belfast
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-30649551Amazing what they can do when the government rediscovers it's balls... though I imagine it only happened to head off an uproar over the prices, and some bean counter worked out the vast majority will just buy whatever's in front of them.
_________________Plain English advice on everything money, purchase and service related:
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/
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Thu Jan 01, 2015 4:42 pm |
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paulzolo
What's a life?
Joined: Thu Apr 23, 2009 6:27 pm Posts: 12251
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It can't be hard surely to programme the ticket machines to offer the best prices, surely?
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Thu Jan 01, 2015 7:06 pm |
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davrosG5
I haven't seen my friends in so long
Joined: Fri Apr 24, 2009 6:37 am Posts: 6954 Location: Peebo
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It shouldn't be, no however when the cheapest ticket is offered by a competitor on the same route there's hardly been an incentive to offer that price. Also the sheer number of possible choices makes fitting the most common options on a single page tricky.
_________________ When they put teeth in your mouth, they spoiled a perfectly good bum. -Billy Connolly (to a heckler)
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Thu Jan 01, 2015 11:11 pm |
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jonbwfc
What's a life?
Joined: Thu Apr 23, 2009 7:26 pm Posts: 17040
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Hold on, competition always provides the best deal for the public. This is a provable fact that cannot be argued with.
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Thu Jan 01, 2015 11:22 pm |
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ShockWaffle
Doesn't have much of a life
Joined: Sat Apr 25, 2009 6:50 am Posts: 1911
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Correct. It's the other people that have predictable, tedious little one track minds; absorbed in a self-congratulatory reverie directed at the misrepresentation of a point of view that almost nobody holds. Not you, you're doing fine.
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Fri Jan 02, 2015 4:50 pm |
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rustybucket
I haven't seen my friends in so long
Joined: Thu Jun 18, 2009 5:10 pm Posts: 5836
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This is a story about a lack of competition, surely?
_________________Jim
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Fri Jan 02, 2015 8:21 pm |
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jonbwfc
What's a life?
Joined: Thu Apr 23, 2009 7:26 pm Posts: 17040
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Depends how you frame it. There's competition in provision of service i.e. trains running on tracks carrying people. There's just no competition in terms of providing information to the consumer. It's in every company's interests to make sure as few customers as possible know when somebody else would provide the service cheaper. Here's the thing - competition often breaks down because it's often not in the interests of the competing providers, so they're permanently all trying to rig the market. Quite often, via various methods, one or other of them succeeds. In a perfect world, competition would operate perfectly and the dogmatic view would be true. But it's not a perfect world. Customers want competition. Suppliers want monopoly. Unless you regulate things properly, the suppliers often win. And the governments we've had for the last 30 years or so have pretty much all been in favour of reducing regulation because its 'red tape'. Properly regulated competition benefits the most consumers most often, much the same way 'enlightened capitalism' benefits the most people in society most often. The problem is we currently have very little properly regulated competition and we have virtually no enlightened capitalism.
Last edited by jonbwfc on Fri Jan 02, 2015 11:50 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Fri Jan 02, 2015 9:27 pm |
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paulzolo
What's a life?
Joined: Thu Apr 23, 2009 6:27 pm Posts: 12251
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In a lot of places, there is no competition. There's only one rail company running passenger services where I live. Every couple of years, the name changes as a franchise lurches from company to company, but I have no "Company A fare vs Company B fare" choice. If I want to travel to London, the choice is simple: train from Chelmsford, or a drive out to Epping and catch the tube (which is actually cheaper). But if I wanted to travel North, there is no choice.
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Fri Jan 02, 2015 10:38 pm |
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ShockWaffle
Doesn't have much of a life
Joined: Sat Apr 25, 2009 6:50 am Posts: 1911
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It is, but there's more than one way to compete. They don't just not compete for each train fare (which would be impossible), they also don't seem to compete much for each franchise. In theory they do compete against road and air traffic, but nobody would build a new airport or lay a road to capitalise on the weakness of a local rail franchise. If the market were competitive there would be winners and losers (that being the point of competition), some would go bust and their operations be snapped up by better run firms. If there were some way for better rail operators to increase their market share at the expense of worse ones, there would be an incentive become better rail operators, and competition of the sort that benefits consumers would be possible. It could be worse. In France for instance which has privatised very little, the national state owned rail operator is protected against competition from coach firms. There are lots of cities that have no direct rail links but cannot legally be linked by direct coach services either. The result being unnecessary long multiple train journeys instead of shorter, cheaper coach trips. It's not just privately owned companies that ought to face competition.
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Sat Jan 03, 2015 11:09 am |
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koli
Doesn't have much of a life
Joined: Fri Apr 24, 2009 5:12 pm Posts: 1171
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Haha, this is brilliant 
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Sat Jan 03, 2015 11:45 am |
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paulzolo
What's a life?
Joined: Thu Apr 23, 2009 6:27 pm Posts: 12251
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[quote="ShockWaffle"If the market were competitive there would be winners and losers (that being the point of competition), some would go bust and their operations be snapped up by better run firms.[/quote]
It strikes my cynical mind that "better run firms" does not equate to "firms that can run a railway". At times, I feel that making trains run from point A to point B for the betterment of paying passengers is an unnecessary evil for some companies.
Some of the best railways I have travelled on have been privately owned. However, they also seem to have steam locomotives.
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Sat Jan 03, 2015 12:49 pm |
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jonbwfc
What's a life?
Joined: Thu Apr 23, 2009 7:26 pm Posts: 17040
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The best performing regional rail franchise in the last few years was publicly owned and has had it's franchise taken away so it can be sold off to the private sector again.
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Sat Jan 03, 2015 8:47 pm |
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Spreadie
I haven't seen my friends in so long
Joined: Fri Apr 24, 2009 6:06 pm Posts: 6355 Location: IoW
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Aww, ain't it sweet. Every time SW says something witty, his little groupie runs out onto the pitch and shakes his pom poms. 
_________________ Before you judge a man, walk a mile in his shoes; after that, who cares?! He's a mile away and you've got his shoes!
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Sun Jan 04, 2015 11:18 am |
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AlunD
Site Admin
Joined: Fri Apr 24, 2009 6:12 am Posts: 7011 Location: Wiltshire
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Interestingly not in the case of railways the best value tickets are normally caused by cock ups in the pricing of tickets. e.g. Chippenham to Didcot first class return £114 Didcot to Watford Junction ( via Paddington ) first class return £94.60 Total - £208.60 no changes required Chippenham to Paddington first class return £256 saving £47.40 
_________________ <input type="pickmeup" name="coffee" value="espresso" />
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Sun Jan 04, 2015 11:29 am |
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MrStevenRogers
Spends far too much time on here
Joined: Fri Apr 24, 2009 9:44 pm Posts: 4860
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these privatised rail companies make the old nationalised British Rail look brilliant in comparison ...
_________________ Hope this helps . . . Steve ...
Nothing known travels faster than light, except bad news ... HP Pavilion 24" AiO. Ryzen7u. 32GB/1TB M2. Windows 11 Home ...
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Sun Jan 04, 2015 8:58 pm |
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