Rail fares rising twice as fast as pay – and 3.5% hike is on way!

RAIL fares are rising twice as fast as wages, a study says.

The report from the RMT transport union comes ahead of passengers being hit by an expected 3.5 per cent hike in the cost of tickets.

The research showed that fares have risen by around 32 per cent in nine years. This compared with 16 per cent for average weekly earnings using the Retail Price Index measure of inflation.

The union claimed that commuters were being ‘ripped off’ by fares which were ‘massively’ more expensive than the rest of Europe.

Commuting from Gravesend, Kent, into London on the high-speed Javelin service is currently £5,828 for an annual season ticket, 18 per cent of average annual earnings.

This is more than twice the percentage of annual earnings paid by a German commuter on a high-speed service from Dusseldorf to Cologne, said the union.

Next year’s fare increase will be confirmed tomorrow when July’s RPI figure is released with analysts predicting the rise will be 3.5 per cent.

The Department for Transport uses July’s inflation level to determine the annual increase in regulated train fares, which comes into force every January.

RMT general secretary Mick Cash said it was a ‘scandal’ British passengers had to ‘pay through the nose to travel on rammed out and unreliable services’.

He added: ‘The rail companies, the majority of whom are foreign stateowned, are using the British transport system as a cash cow to hold down their domestic fares. That must be stopped.’

Paul Plummer, chief executive of the Rail Delivery Group, representing train companies, said: ‘Of every pound spent on fares, 98p is invested back into the railway, helping to underpin a once-ina-generation investment to change and improve for the benefit of our customers, communities and UK economy.’

‘Pay through the nose for unreliable services’