Great British Railways will be responsible for fares, ticketing and the retailing strategy for the Passenger Service Contract operators.This will include making fares'simpler, clearer and easier to understand'. In effect, there will be two strands to fares reform - retail modernisation and actual fares reform. In a Venn diagram, the two activities would overlap. Fares reform was explored in detail in last month's column. The consultation document, sensibly, is more concerned with the immediate changes to the mechanics of retailing. We are promised 'an exciting revolution'in the way passengers buy and pay for their rail travel. This will be backed by the ￡360 million of investment over the next three years announced in last year's Spending Review. Central to retail reform will be digitisation where, according to the Department for Transport, 'the rail industry has so far been unable to emulate the modernisation and cost savings which other transport operators have achieved'. GBR will'roll out' digital ticketing and contactless payments, while a new central sales website will replace the train operators' existing individual sites.
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