World · Economy 51
26 minutes ago Joe Skirkowski, Bristol and Ross Pollard, Somerset BBC Helen (centre) buys yearly travel passes for her daughters Bluebell (left) and Daisy (right) Some students are paying more for travel than others due to having birthdays early in the year. Great Western Railway (GWR) offers rail fare concessions to children under 16 on parts of their network, but pupils with autumn or winter birthdays do not qualify for the remainder of the academic year after they turn 16. Helen, from Weston-super-Mare in North Somerset, has two daughters, Bluebell and Daisy, at a Church of England school in Bristol and says the current system is like a "birth lottery".
GWR spokesperson Dan Panes acknowledged the discrepancy but said that "if you want to give those cheaper tickets to children there's got to be a cut off somewhere". More from Bristol "There's lots of live debate about whether that's the correct age and the industry is looking at that but we have to make sure we're all in lockstep when we change that," he added. "We can't build a fare structure on the birthdays and individual details of every single one of our customers, we've got to look at something that's fair and works across the whole of the railway network." Panes said ticketing age tariffs is something the industry "would like to look at" and suggested it may be re-examined by Great British Railways.
The Department for Transport said that five to 15 child fares and over 16 prices are set out in contracts and are "not something individual train operators can simply choose to change". GWR's Dan Panes said the industry would like to look at current ticket age brackets but any changes need to apply to the entire rail network GWR offers the Scholar Season Ticket on the Severnside part of their line and can be used at multiple stations. Helen said her eldest was born in November so will not qualify for the scholar fare for most of the school year.
"My eldest child, who was born in the autumn months, has to pay double, but my youngest is born in the summer and pays half," she said. Helen said the "safety, affordability and sustainability" of the train was a factor in selecting the school and that moving would be too disruptive ahead of exams. 'I'm really angry' The family buy yearly passes and say that the experience has mostly been "really good" despite increasing costs: "When I was initially looking into it, they quoted me £360, but by the time I purchased it had gone up to £400 and every year it has gone up by £40 or £50," she said. "This year it's £585, so it's gone from £360 to £585 over those few years." Helen said the family have had to "factor in" these increases and that her eldest daughter's new bill is estimated at around £1,300.
"When they actually told me that she would be classed as an adult but [with a] discount, I just didn't understand why," she said. "I'm really angry, these are children still and I think maybe profits are to be made and they're not the right demographic you should be targeting. "She's had a birthday, but she's still wearing a uniform, she's still a child, she can't go out to work, it's compulsory education." GWR dispute the figures stated and say they are looking into whether Helen has overpaid for some of the passes.
Source: BBC
