Fare optimisation in rail

Why fare structures leak revenue

Rail fare structures tend to accumulate complexity over years — legacy products, overlapping fares, restrictions that no longer reflect demand, and overrides that quietly undermine the intended logic. The result is yield that sits below what the same demand could deliver under a cleaner, better-optimised structure.

Fare optimisation is the work of realigning that structure with how customers actually book and how demand actually moves, so each fare earns its place and the overall mix maximises revenue.

How I approach fare optimisation

• Diagnose the current structure — identify where fares overlap, cannibalise or fail to capture willingness to pay.
• Align fares to demand — redesign structures so price points map to real booking behaviour and segments.
• Reduce manual intervention — let the system and structure do the work rather than constant overrides.
• Measure the uplift — validate the revenue benefit and embed the discipline to sustain it.

Backed by real results

Fare and revenue optimisation work in rail has delivered material, measurable benefit in my engagements — including a revenue management system implementation for a national intercity operator where parallel-run analysis indicated roughly £1m of incremental revenue every four weeks, much of it from better optimisation and reduced manual intervention.

Optimisation only lasts when it is embedded. I stay hands-on to make sure the new structure is adopted, governed and trusted by the commercial team.