Rail fares policy and ticketing projects
Sector: Urban Transport
Capability: Strategy & Economics
Fares, ticketing and retailing is regularly identified as a key pain point by customers for being over-complicated, confusing and difficult to use. Our experts have been involved in a range of projects, locally, nationally and internationally in supporting various government authorities in improving fare structure and fare policy, as well as the roll-out of advanced Electronic Ticketing Systems. Projects include:
- Policy advice on a range of policy, commercial and technical challenges relating to fares and ticketing reforms in the UK, including implementation of Single Leg Pricing and advanced yield management approaches.
- Evaluation of Fares and Ticketing Delivery Plans for UK Rail Franchise Bids on behalf of DfT, including for the West Coast franchise competition.
- PMO for Electronic Ticketing System (ETS) roll out in New South Wales, Australia, which saw the roll out of ETS assets and retirement of MST assets across all rail, bus, ferry and light rail transport modes.
- Roll-out of the 16-17 rail card across UK Rail, which included estimating the revenue impact of introducing the card and coordination of all commercial negotiations with all UK operators.
- Revenue improvement strategy for a state government in Australia assessing alternative fare structure levels across all modes targeting customer experience simplification, and incorporating ancillary revenue enhancement strategies.
- Facilitated policy workshops to define policy objectives and analyse options for simplification.
- Commercial negotiations on behalf of government with ticket system O&M suppliers.
- Commercial negotiations on behalf of government with operators for implementation of new ticketing products.
- Detailed demand and revenue impact analysis of different fare strategies.
- Bid evaluation of Fares and Ticketing Delivery Plans.
- Led PMO for roll-out of ETS.
- Used our industry knowledge and expertise to tailor our approach and outputs to the needs of Network Rail, Operators, DfT and wider stakeholders.
- Worked with PwC, Atkins, Ramboll and Network Rail to accelerate the process of developing outputs, leading to a consistent and extensive OBC.
- Developed detailed, best-practice analysis to create a compelling case for change and a clear plan for the next phase of development.
- Developed a bespoke Preliminary Access Strategy through novel analysis and early stakeholder engagement, setting out a new and wholesale approach to engineering access for Trilink and the industry.