I also am concerned that it doesn't trial other things alongside it that make Advances friendlier, e.g. no admin fee for changes, refundable, break of journey allowed (provided any travel is on booked trains) etc. It's not a given that even a compulsory reservation railway has to ape Ryanair.
Presumably because it isn't a "trial" at all.
It's an introduction of the new fare scheme on a few flows, and in due course it will be declared a success and rolled out across the network.
If as Captain Deltic has suggested the only success criterion is whether it increases income, I think we all know what the conclusion will be.
One might hope that the government would explicltly announce and justify the abandonment of regulated fares for long distance travel but I suspect that one would do so in vain.
Personally it feels insulting to try to pretend that to make it much harder and more expensive to use the railway is actually somehow making passengers' lives better.
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