A whopping 200,000 bargain fares are being made available by LNER - London North Eastern Railway - for as little as £5.
By subsidizing fares, the company hopes to bring passengers back onto rail, as the country recovers from the pandemic.
The innovative approach is in response to people wanting to plan ahead of schedule, with tickets having been made available for as far ahead as the Christmas and New Year period.
Fares will be available for travel between September 6th and October 15th, 2021, on routes connecting Scotland, Northeast England, Yorkshire, the East Midlands, and London.
The fares start at £5 for a single journey between destinations such as London King’s Cross, Peterborough, Durham, York, Edinburgh, and Berwick.
Additionally, single standard journeys between Leeds and London King’s Cross will cost £10, and £25 for First Class; and single journeys between King’s Cross and Edinburgh will be £20 for Standard, or £40 for First Class.
David Horne, Managing Director at LNER, said “we are pleased to be welcoming back more customers to travel with us this year.”
He continued, “our Sensational Seat Sale offers incredible value fares on some of LNER’s most popular routes so people can enjoy some of the fantastic destinations on our route.”
“Our services are consistently above 90 per cent of pre-Covid levels as we see more people returning to the railway to travel.”
The Seat Sale has strategically covered dates when there is usually more availability over September and early October.
The Managing Director added, “we continue to monitor demand and this latest offer, combined with making tickets available for Christmas and New Year travel, are just some of the ways we’re welcoming people back to LNER and enjoy all we have to offer.”
The new scheme has been welcomed with open arms following Christmas 2020, which brought with it many complications.
Households in London and the Southeast were banned from mixing over the festive period, while the rest of the country were allowed to meet indoors, but only on Christmas Day.
According to statistics by ORR - The Office of Rail and Road - 388mi rail passenger journeys were made in Great Britain in 2020-21, which equates to 22.3% of 1,739mi journeys made in 2019-20.
This is the lowest level of annual passenger usage since before the time series began in 1872.
But when lockdown eased on July 19th, more than 750,000 journey searches have been made on LNER's website.
The unique strategy has meant an 11% increase on journey searches - compared with July - as people gradually start to plan and book ahead.
Since April 2021, more than 4m journeys were also made, exceeding the total number of journeys undertaken compared to the previous 12 months combined.
So far, the most popular destinations have been York, Newcastle, and Edinburgh.
The Seat Sale is live on the LNER website and app until September 1st, 2021.
