Mizter T wrote:

The Rail Minister Tom Harris has announced that the National Rail (NR)
network in London is to adopt a zonal fares system. This will apply to
all rail journeys that are wholly within the London Travelcard zones
(that is zones 1 - 6).

(snip)

There will be single, return and cheap day return (CDR) tickets
available. Many have suggested that a zonal ticketing system will do
away with CDRs and will be pleased to hear they are to stay.

(snip)


Having digested the press release a little I've an observation and a
query.

My observation is regarding rail-only season tickets - some had
wondered about whether they had a future, but this announcement
confirms they're here to stay. This is one of the footnotes from the
DfT press release [1]:

"Operators will be required to set rail-only seasons on a similar zonal
basis from January 2010."

i.e. rail-only season ticket prices will be set on a zonal basis, but
they will remain cheaper than a Travelcard covering the same zones.

My query is whether these tickets will be issued on a point-to-point
basis - i.e. with specifically named origin and destination stations -
or issued Tube-style where only the zonal validity is printed on the
ticket. The latter allows for more flexibility for the passenger, but
would appear to be far more prone to abuse. I suspect NR tickets will
continue to issued on a point-to-point basis.

Indeed Southern already use a zonal system for setting the fares on
their routes, and they have done since January 2005. However they
continue to issue tickets with on a named point-to-point basis. (See
the FarePal page on the Southern website for more info on this [2].)


[1] DfT press release:
http://www.gnn.gov.uk/environment/fu...leaseID=235656
or via shorturl http://tinyurl.com/y8sm6v

[2] Southern FarePal
http://www.southernrailway.com/main.php?page_id=126