CAMPAIGNERS are calling on the Tories to freeze rail fares.
Passengers in battle to stop rail price rises
The Lib Dems said: “If they can do it for fuel duty, why not for train tickets?”
Fares are to go up by 3.6% in January.
THE Tories faced a major backlash yesterday on the biggest rail fares rise in five years.
Campaigners, union chiefs and MPs demanded a freeze – and there were also renewed calls for a return to public ownership.
The rise of 3.6% on regulated fares due in January sparked fury.
Stephen Joseph, of Campaign for Better Transport, said: “We want the Government to bring in a fares freeze. It has frozen fuel duty for the last seven years and we think rail fares should be given the same treatment.”
And Lib Dem transport spokeswoman Jenny Randerson said: “The government needs to freeze rail fares. If they can do it for fuel duty, why not for train tickets?”
Labour MP for Hull North Diana Johnson said a freeze would be a “great idea, especially for parts of the country that are seeing so little investment in services”.
RMT union chief Mick Cash said holding back wages while allowing fare rises was a “toxic combination” and public ownership was the “only solution to the Great British Private Rail Rip-Off ”.
Shadow Transport Secretary Andy McDonald also urged the Tories to “extend public ownership to passenger services”. And Labour’s Geraint Davies, who published a Clean Air bill over diesel pollution, said we could “put Britain on track for a healthier transport future” by “freezing rail fares, paid for by diesel duty pegged to inflation”.
Regulated fares make up about half of all tickets and include season tickets and standard and saver return fares. The RMT thinks rail firms will make at least £337million from the rise. Unregulated fares – super off-peak and advance tickets – will go up by even more in December.
The Retail Price Index is used for the annual rise but critics say it should be the lower CPI to stop fares rising faster than incomes.
But Rail Delivery Group chief Paul Plummer said fares pay “to run and improve the railway”.