Changes to off-peak rail travel in Greater Manchester

Northern Rail

Northern Rail is introducing evening peak ticket restrictions on all local rail services in Greater Manchester.

From Monday 8 September, ‘off-peak’ tickets will no longer be valid on any local train services – including Northern, TransPennine Express, East Coast, Virgin and Cross Country services – scheduled to depart between 4.01pm and 6.29pm on weekdays.

The change is part of the extension of Northern’s franchise to February 2016, an agreement which comes with reduced subsidy – as government policy is to decrease taxpayer funding of the railways.

More information about the changes is available here. Passengers are also advised to contact their train operator directly.

Multi-modal, multi-operator SystemOne products will also be changing and information on those changes can be found here.

As a result of the changes, combined ‘off-peak’ train-and-tram tickets will no longer be valid on local trains scheduled to depart between 4.01pm and 6.29pm on weekdays either – but they will still be valid on Metrolink services.

Anyone who wants to travel between these times on local trains using a combined train-and-tram pass needs to buy an ‘anytime’ ticket instead.

TfGM’s existing policy of providing Greater Manchester residents with concessionary travel on local rail services after 9.30am on weekdays will not be changing as a result of the new arrangements.

Councillor Andrew Fender, Chairman of the TfGM Committee, said: “I would encourage all rail passengers to familiarise themselves with the changes to ensure they are not caught out once they come into effect on 8 September.

“The changes being made are part of Northern Rail’s new commercial arrangement with the Department for Transport that secured their franchise extension to February 2016.

“The effect they have is to ask passengers to pay more for largely the same service as before.

“Where tangible improvements have been made, it may not be unreasonable to then expect those improvements to be funded, in part, through fares – but increasing fares in the evening peak prior to real improvements is hard to justify.

“TfGM Committee members have consistently called on Northern Rail to do much more to combat fare evasion. TfGM and Northern Rail recognise the importance of increasing revenue by targeting ticketless travel.

“This issue is an example of why we are so resolutely in support of the Rail North proposals, as they would give us far greater influence on such matters in future.”

TfGM currently has no plans to introduce a similar evening peak period on trams and is not aware of any plans to do so on bus services in Greater Manchester.