ORR’s Retail Market Review focused on who sells tickets, what tickets are sold, where and how tickets are sold, and the ticket format. We considered this from the point of view of the industry rules and practices that govern how all retailers (train operating companies (TOCs) and third party retailers) sell tickets.
Our conclusions
Our conclusions document to the Retail Market Review discussed our recommendations and TOCs’ commitments to improve the way they make decisions that affect third party retailers; it sets out our findings regarding the merits of TOCs’ ability to discount fares and to restrict their distribution; and it explains the progress we, industry and governments have made regarding the other recommendations we made in June 2015 to facilitate competition and to improve collaboration among retailers.
What we have done:
The Retail Market Review involved three public consultations, two industry workshops and primary research about passengers’ views on ticketing. Further information on this work is available below:
- An initial call for evidence document in February 2014 that sought stakeholders' views on our initial thinking on the scope and approach of the review;
- An initial industry workshop on May 2014;
- A report by CEPA consultancy on the comparative analysis of the third party retail markets outside rail in August 2014;
- A consultation on the potential impacts of regulation and industry arrangements and practices for ticket selling in September 2014;
- A consultation on our Emerging Findings in June 2015;
- Market research undertaken by BDRC Continental to understand passengers' views on rail ticketing, including how well the integrated retail model works from their perspective and what value it brings; and
- A second industry workshop on 7 September 2015.
Stakeholder workshops
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ORR has hosted two stakeholder workshops for the review of the rail retail market. A note of each workshop, that summarises the main points of discussion, and the presentation slides used are available below.
7 September 2015:
8 May 2014:
Consultation on our emerging findings
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Consultation document
Further information
- Rail ticket retailing: the passenger perspective
As part of our review on rail ticket retailing, we commissioned market research among rail passengers to understand passengers' views on rail ticketing, including how well the integrated retail model works from their perspective and what value it brings.
Responses
Consultation on the potential impacts of regulation and industry arrangements and practices for ticket selling
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Consultation document
- Consultation document on the retail market review
3 September 2014
Further information
Responses
- Arriva UK Trains
- ATOC
- BR Fares Ltd
- C2C
- Centro
- Chiltern Railways
- CrossCountry pdf icon PDF, 82 Kb
- East Coast Trains
- Mr F J Rogers
- First Group
- Global Travel Adventures
- Govia
- Grand Central
- Iosis Associates
- Keolis
- London TravelWatch
- Mr Michael Brooks
- Money Saving Expert
- Passenger Focus
- PTEG
- Redfern
- RMT
- Stagecoach Rail
- Transport for London
- Transport Scotland
- TravelWatch NorthWest
- Virgin Trains
- Visit Britain
Stakeholder workshop
ORR's stakeholder workshop for the review of the rail retail market took place on 8 May 2014. The note and presentation slides below summarise the main points of discussion.
- Meeting note
- Presentation slides (available soon)
Call for evidence
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The call for evidence sought stakeholders' views on our initial thinking on the scope and approach of the review.
Consultation letter: Retail market review for selling tickets – call for evidence
19 February 2014
Responses
- Abellio Greater Anglia
- Arriva UK trains
- Association of European Rail Agents
- ATOC
- Campaign for Better Transport
- Centro
- East Midlands Trains
- Evolvi
- First Group
- Govia
- James Miller
- Loco2
- Metro
- Network Rail
- Passenger Focus
- PTEG
- Railfuture
- Transport for London (TfL)
- Transport Salaried Staffs' Association (TSSA)
- TravelWatch NorthWest
- Which?