LNER (London North Eastern Railway) have owned the InterCity East Coast franchise since they took over from Virgin Trains East Coast in 2018. The company is owned by DfT OLR Holdings for Department for Transport after it became nationalised.
The new system came into effect on 11 June, with LNER scrapping return tickets for nearly all of their journeys.
A trial in which all fares were charged on a single-journey basis was carried out on three LNER routes in 2020 between London King’s Cross and Leeds, Newcastle and Edinburgh.
Single tickets were priced at around half that of a return, where previously return fares have only been £1 more than a single fare.
The new system will bring an extension of this approach, allowing passengers to choose between an anytime single, off-peak or super off-peak single or an advance single, giving passengers more flexibility when travelling on LNER services.
Sixty-one per cent of people surveyed in research commissioned by LNER were in favour of single leg ticketing being extended – those questioned included LNER customers and non-LNER customers.
More than 55 per cent of LNER customers agreed that single leg ticketing simplifies the way tickets work.
All but a handful of LNER tickets will now be singles under the new expanded single leg pricing approach, with only a few anomalies that will also become single fares in due course.
According to LNER, single tickets will also help reduce overcrowding, making more seat reservations available for those that want one.
