Hard-hit rail passengers ‘are funding cheap foreign fares’
SOARING ticket prices on UK train services owned by German, Italian and Dutch state rail firms are subsiding their domestic services, a union claims.
The RMT predicts fares will rise 3.5% in January and has accused European owners of “robbing” passengers to keep fares down at home.
It claims Italian operator C2C charges 2.4 times more on its UK routes than in Italy, while travel- lers on German state-owned Arriva North paid a third more, and Dutch state-owned Greater Anglia charged twice as much here. Mick Cash, RMT general secretary, said: “UK passengers on our clapped out privatised railway are paying more and more to help keep fares down on other European railways. “It is a national scandal.” But Paul Plummer, of the Rail Delivery Group, said investment here was “making journeys better”.