Passengers 'lose out on poor advice'

Thursday, 20 August 2009 08:00

Passengers could be paying up to double the cheapest train fare because of poor advice from staff, Which? has claimed.

In a survey of staff at ticket offices and the National Rail Enquiries (NRE) call centre, Which? asked about the cheapest way to take specific journeys.

But two-thirds of station clerks and four in ten call centre staff failed to quote the cheapest fare, with the correct answer given in just 93 out of 200 questions.

Martyn Hocking, editor of Which? magazine, said: "If you just want to know the cheapest way to get from A to B, you'd expect staff at the station ticket office or on the end of the rail enquiries helpline to be able to tell you.

"It's not acceptable that passengers could be paying well over the odds because of poor advice. Rail firms must ensure that staff are properly trained and that fare information is clear."

Where there was a choice of train company, the consumer group was quoted the more expensive fare 27 out of 50 times, with 80 per cent of ticket offices ignoring the cheaper option.

In some cases, the fare quoted was more than double the cheapest available option, Which? said.

In addition, when asked about making two journeys in a week, two thirds of staff gave the price of two returns, rather than a better value season ticket.

More than half the questions about breaking a journey were answered incorrectly and when asked about journeys close to the end of a peak period, staff did not mention a slight delay could result in savings.

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