Kentish Express Ashford & District
Commuters ‘fleeced’ by increases in rail charges
Campaigners call for government to demand fairer ticketing
Angry commuters say they are being fleeced over rail tickets which are more expensive per minute than premium rate telephone calls.
Southeastern passengers face a 1.9% increase in fares when they return to work from Tuesday, January 3.
On average they will pay £5,192 per year for a season ticket from Ashford International Station to London.
It means that the price per minute of their commute will be the second most expensive in the country, averaging 26p per minute on an average journey time of one hour and 16 minutes.
Activists from the Campaign for Better Transport say commuters are getting a raw deal, as many of them will face journeys standing in carriages.
Transport campaigner Lianna Etkind said: “Wages remain stagnant and trains continue to be hopelessly overcrowded.
“Commuters are rightly angry at annual fare rises when they see little or no improvement in the service they receive.
“Many are now being charged a similar level to a premium rate phone number for their season tickets and are left feeling equally as fleeced.
“It’s high time the government introduces a fairer ticketing system that encourages rail travel, rather than penalising people for choosing to take the train.”
According to the campaign’s research, commuters from Stevenage face the steepest fares, at 27p per minute for their commute, while commuters in Ashford and Reading are not far behind on 26p.
Now they are calling on the government to bring in season ticket discounts for part-time workers, using the Consumer Price Index (CPI) to fix fare increases rather than the Retail Price Index (RPI) and a cap on increases for walkon fares.
Earlier this year the Kentish Express reported that overcrowding on high speed lines could be eased with the return of a six carriage train on the early morning route to St Pancras in the New Year.
But boosting rail capacity remains a decision for the government, and could take up to two years before more trains actually end up on the tracks.
A Southeastern spokesman said: “The overall average fare rise for Southeastern next year is 1.8%, which is below the national average of 2.3%.
“It is also slightly under the national rise set by the government for regulated fares of 1.9% – which is for season tickets and peak time fares.”