IN a few weeks I shall be travelling to York — and planning how to get there proved to be a right brain teaser.

My options were: hire a car and travel there and back in a night; or take the train and stay overnight — and there was lots of totting up and thinking to be done.

The first option was more expensive than the second and it led me to thinking it was a shame that rail bosses do not do enough to fully market what they have to offer.

So here is my list of how they could do so.

1. Make trains cheaper

On the route I wanted, there was only route that offered a discounted ticket (£26.60 instead of £34.60) and, while that is great, those tickets are only valid on a particular train, so you are stranded or left footing a big bill if you miss your train. Flexibility is the key.

2. Promote existing cheaper fares

The Wayfarer ticket allows you to travel anywhere in Greater Manchester and parts of neighbouring counties on buses, trains and trams for the day for just £12, yet few people know about it and they are never promoted on online routeplanners. Tell your customers what is on offer.

3. Create space on trains

The Bolton News even went to Downing Street last year to campaign for this. Trains are often overcrowded, which puts people off, and it could be argued that bosses have no incentive to reduce prices if trains are already full. In fact, this was used as an excuse to put prices up in a new weekday "evening peak" period last October.

4. Hurry up with engineering works and stop using replacement buses

Twice last week I got stuck on these coaches. On one of them, a 14-minute train journey took 49 minutes on the coach and other passengers were facing coach journeys of 93 minutes between Preston and Bolton when the train would have taken 25 minutes. Of course, it is in the name of progress, but it is still extremely off-putting.

5. Reward loyalty

Give passengers a £5 voucher for every £100 they spend, or offer them a free cup of coffee at the station if they travel at quieter times of day. I like the fact that companies such as TransPennine Express allow people to print tickets at home and even donate 25p to charity every time you print, but customers need more incentives to book.

6. Think green

The rail system helps the environment in a huge way by keeping people out of cars, and yet bosses do not sing from the rooftops about it. Why not encourage people to travel by rail by telling people how much carbon they are offsetting by doing so?