End of the line for rail fare rip-off?
Ministers vow shake-up amid fury
MINISTERS plan a shake-up of rip-off rail fares in a bid to head off anger about today’s latest round of price hikes.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps will announce plans to trial a system of ‘flexible’ season tickets offering discounts to parttime workers travelling only three or four days a week.
A separate trial on routes between London, the North and Edinburgh will today seek to sort out the controversial pricing system which means an off-peak single can cost almost as much as a return.
If successful, the system could be rolled out across the country.
A ‘root and branch’ review of the entire rail system by Royal Mail chairman Keith Williams is also due to report in the coming weeks.
The moves come as ministers are braced for a backlash today over fare increases averaging 2.7 per cent which come into force today.
Some long- distance commuters will be hit by a rise of more than £100 on the annual cost of getting to work despite fewer than two-thirds of trains being on time last year.
Bruce Williamson, of pressure group Railfuture, claimed fares are ‘outstripping people’s incomes’. He added: ‘Welcome to another decade of misery for rail passengers.’
Protests at the rises are expected outside major stations today including London’s King’s Cross, where passengers will join unions and campaigners to call for lower fares and more staff.
Among the routes where the cost of annual season tickets is up by a three-figure sum are Reading to London (up £132 to £4,736), Gloucester to Birmingham (up £118 to £4,356) and Glasgow to Edinburgh (up £116 to £4,200).
An annual season ticket from Welwyn Garden City in Mr Shapps’ Hertfordshire constituency to London will rise by £84 to £3,100. A source close to the Transport Secretary said he understood the anger felt by commuters about constant price hikes.
Last night the Department for Transport confirmed plans for a ‘ fares trial’ on some commuter services run by Govia Thameslink Railway in the South East.
Details are being finalised but the pilot is expected to include ‘flexible’ season tickets as currently only those working full-time gain significant savings. In the trials on the London North Eastern network, trials will assess the popularity of cheaper one-way fares after years of controversy over walk-on single tickets.
For example, a traveller buying a ticket at the station to go from London to Edinburgh would pay £150.50 for a Super Off-Peak single but £151.50 for a Super Off-Peak return. From today, a Super Off-Peak single will be just £75.75.
Similar discounts will be offered on services from Leeds and Newcastle to the capital. Last night Mr Shapps insisted ministers were ‘committed to putting passengers first’ while adding that ‘ significant change will take time’.
But campaigners want more immediate help, including an end to the annual round of increases based on the Retail Prices Index which has been 2.8 or 2.9 per cent during 2019 up to November. This measure has been largely abandoned by other arms of government in favour of the lower Consumer Prices Index.
Robert Nisbet, of industry body the Rail Delivery Group, said average fare rises have been held below inflation for three years running while investment in new trains and services continues.
But a TUC study has indicated that some commuters spend more than seven times as much on season tickets as their European equivalents.
The union umbrella body declared that today’s rises cannot be justified when the private rail companies have paid out more than £1.2billion in dividends to shareholders in the last five years.
AREN’T we supposed to be trying to cut carbon emissions by encouraging more people to get out of their cars and on to public transport?
Then why are the rail companies being allowed to charge even more extortionate ticket prices for what is, for many, a poorly-managed, unreliable, strikebound service?
A ‘root and branch’ review of the whole system is due to report in the coming weeks. Let’s hope it has some radical ideas to get long- suffering passengers some value for money. They certainly aren’t getting any today.
■ YET another internet banking shambles – this time affecting Lloyds, Halifax and Bank of Scotland – locked millions of people out of their accounts on New Year’s Day. With branches and ATMs also being shut at an alarming rate and overdraft charges soaring, it seems the idea of customer service in the banking system has become a thing of the past.