Train companies adopt Tube-style fare cap in back-to-work drive

Britain’s largest train company has announced Tube-style weekly fare caps to try to tempt workers back to the office.

Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR), which runs Southern, Thameslink and Great Northern trains, said it wanted to help post-pandemic commuters save hundreds of pounds in rail fares.

Customers that use GTR’s pay-as-you-go smart card can benefit from weekly capping, similar to the Transport for London (TfL) system, which limits journeys, for example, between Zone 1, 2 and 3 over seven days to £50.20 for both contactless and Oyster cards.

Passengers between Brighton and London Victoria could save almost £125 every week and commuters between Bedford and London could save £65 every week, the train company said, meaning that people using the smart card will not get charged more than someone with a weekly season ticket.

Mark Pavlides, the interim chief customer officer at GTR, said: “The additional promise to never charge more than a weekly season ticket for travel between the same two stations means thousands of commuters returning to the office will never miss out on weekly season ticket deals, saving hundreds of pounds a week or month.

“And with automatically generated Delay Repay compensation claims, getting the best deal when travelling by train has never been simpler.

“With keyGo fares – applicable on our Key Smartcard – no matter how frequently you travel between the same two stations each week, you’ll never pay more than a weekly season ticket.”

Customers already using keyGo – approximately 30,000, according to the GTR database – immediately qualify for these savings, and GTR hopes to encourage thousands more people to sign up to benefit from weekly capping.

Earlier this year, Northern Rail launched Barcode Season Tickets for so-called “recremuters” – workers who only go into the office a few days a week to socialise after hours.

The season tickets offer any eight days travel in a 28-day window up to 33 per cent off the regular cost of commuting between two stations, with the rail company saying the office itself “isn’t reason enough” to travel anymore.

It comes as businesses and governmental departments have been trying to draw more workers back into the office as many are still choosing to work from home after it became normalised during the pandemic.

In November, Rishi Sunak ordered civil servants back to the office for at least three days a week due to concerns over productivity.