Train lines in meltdown as fares rise is revealed
Transport Editor RAIL users’ fury at the news of a big rise in next year’s fares was yesterday compounded when some of the country’s busiest lines went into meltdown.
Amid ongoing anger at late and overcrowded trains, passengers were enraged by news that regulated fares, including season tickets, will be capped at a 3.6 per cent rise based on July’s Retail Price Index (RPI) inflation rate.
This represents the biggest increase in five years and unregulated fares, such as open returns, could rise by even more.
And as the bad news sank in, a succession of derailments, mishaps and delays heaped misery upon beleaguered rail users.
South West Trains were forced to tell passengers not to travel on its network after a train derailed at 5.40am when it hit an engineering wagon near Waterloo.
Buffers
This compounded the chaos already surrounding Britain’s busiest station, which is only partially open while it undergoes a platform extension.
Less than an hour later a train hit the buffers at King’s Cross, sending passengers flying.
The incidents came hours after a derailment in Ely, Cambridgeshire, on Monday. Eleven wagons left the tracks near Manea, with services between Peterborough and Bury St Edmunds expected to be disrupted for days.
As the problems mounted, critics questioned why fares had been capped at RPI, instead of the lower Consumer Prices Index which was 2.6 per cent in July.
A study by the RMT and TUC shows that rail fares have increased at twice the rate of pay rises in recent years.
The Campaign for Better Transport said the RPI rise will force up season tickets to London from Brighton by £163 to £4,699, from Milton Keynes by £181 to £5,209 and from Sevenoaks by £122 to £3,502.
The same ticket from Manchester to Liverpool will rise by £110 to £3,154, from Bath to Bristol by £57 to £1,637 and from Leeds to York by £80 to £2,312. A recent Engineers work on the derailed carriages outside Waterloo Station yesterday, above. Right, another derailment took place in Ely, Cambs survey by Transport Focus found that most passengers are already dissatisfied with the value for money.
A passenger on the train which hit the buffers at King’s Cross, Natasha Coello, 36, who was slightly hurt in the collision, said: “How can they justify these rail prices when on some of the routes you are having to stand like sardines?”
Watchdog Transport Focus said rail performance lags well behind the fare increases. Director David Sidebottom said: “Yet again, passengers, now majority funders of the railway, face fare rises.
“So while performance remains patchy and with pay and wages not keeping pace with inflation, they will feel rightly aggrieved.”
Alex Hayman, Which? Managing Director of Public Markets, said: “This price hike will be a kick in the teeth for the majority of passengers who already feel they aren’t getting value for money for their train services.”
Meanwhile, rail unions stepped up their calls for the industry to be renationalised. RMT leader Mick Cash said the fare increase will mean some £337million in extra revenue for the largely foreign-owned train operating companies. He said: “The private operators are laughing all the way to the bank. It’s no wonder we are a global laughing stock.”