Call for rethink on rail fares after latest above-inflation increase
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Version 0 of 1. Campaigners demand overhaul of system and fairer way to calculate future fares Campaigners have called on the government to rethink rail fares as commuters return to work facing another 2.8% rise in the cost of their travel. The latest above-inflation increase will add more than £100 to many season tickets, and follows months of misery on some of the country’s biggest commuter rail networks, affecting passengers in the north of England, the Midlands and London. On TransPennine Express, almost a third of services have been significantly late or cancelled in the last month. Its performance and those of Northern and West Midlands Trains have prompted city mayors to demand immediate improvement. Many train crew on South Western Railway are returning to work on Thursday after a month of strikes, during which about 60% of services were running. Darren Shirley, the chief executive of the Campaign for Better Transport, said: “Rail passengers are tired of rising fares and broken promises. It’s time for a complete overhaul of the fares system and a fairer way to calculate future level [of fares].” Bruce Williamson, of the pressure group Railfuture, said: “Welcome to another decade of misery for rail passengers. How on earth is the government going to meet its climate commitments by pricing people off environmentally friendly trains and on to our polluted and congested roads?” The government said it was trialling new fares to reflect modern working and travelling patterns as part of a “year of action” towards improving the railways. Commuters on some Govia Thameslink Railway routes will be able to buy tickets providing better value for part-time and flexible workers. On some LNER routes, much cheaper off-peak single-leg tickets will be available. Currently most long-distance singles cost virtually the same price as a return fare. The transport secretary, Grant Shapps, said the government would reform rail to “ensure the focus is always on putting passengers first”. He added: “Delivering such significant change will take time, but passengers can have total confidence that these trials will help provide the evidence needed to develop wider reforms to the fares system and a significantly better service.” A full review of how the rail system operates was commissioned by Chris Grayling as transport secretary in the wake of timetable chaos in 2018, and its findings are due to be published shortly. The former British Airways boss Keith Williams, who is chairing the review, has said fares will be one key area for reform. Labour pointed out that rail fares were being cut in Germany while they increased in the UK. The shadow transport secretary, Andy McDonald, said: “It shows that this government is not serious about supporting either public transport or tackling climate change, road congestion or air quality.” Rail fares regulated by the government – which account for about half of all tickets sold, including season tickets, anytime tickets and off-peak long-distance returns – will rise by up to 2.8% from Thursday. The average fare rise across all types of ticket, including non-regulated, is slightly lower, at 2.7%. The fare rise is set using the retail prices index inflation rate for July. Critics argue RPI is obsolete and that using the consumer prices index (CPI) would have led to significantly lower fare rises over the past decade, and a 2.1% increase this year. Unions are due to hold demonstrations against the latest fare rises at stations around the country on Thursday. The TUC released research showing that fares for commuters have risen by 46% since 2009 – in a decade when average weekly wages have risen by 23%. The TUC said many UK commuters spent seven times as much on season tickets as passengers in Europe, while private rail companies had paid out more than £1.2bn in dividends to shareholders in the last five years. The TUC general secretary, Frances O’Grady, said: “Working people have had enough of overcrowded and unreliable services. The number one priority should be running a world-class railway service, not subsidising shareholders.” The RMT union said rolling stock companies, which lease trains to operators, had paid £2.4bn to shareholders in the last 10 years. The Rail Delivery Group, which speaks for the industry, said there was continued investment with more than 1,000 new carriages and more than 1,000 additional services coming in across the UK in 2020. However, politicians across Britain are losing patience. The mayor of the West Midlands, Andy Street, has given Abellio-run West Midlands Trains an ultimatum to sort out its “simply woeful service” by the end of January or he will formally request that the government ends its franchise. Meanwhile, the mayors of Greater Manchester and Liverpool, Andy Burnham and Steve Rotheram, have repeatedly urged the government to strip Arriva of the Northern rail franchise and said TransPennine Express should be next, after weeks of delays and cancellations. |