It’s time to get a grip on the cost of rail fares
A DAILY newspaper recently contrasted the price of annual rail season tickets for certain journeys.
The cost per mile of route for these journeys turns out to be: Swindon to Bristol – £86 Burton on Trent to Birmingham – £95 Leeds to Birmingham – £68 Brighton to London – £93 Peterborough to London –£103 Cheltenham to London –£120 How do these compare with the Rochdale to Manchester rail season ticket? The answer is we have to pay £108 per mile route; Bolton to Victoria pays £100 and Glossop to Piccadilly pays £85
The same daily newspaper complains about the supposedly extortionate off-peak return fare from Harrogate to York.
It costs £9 for a journey of 20 miles each way. From Rochdale we have to pay £6.90 for a journey of tenand-a-half miles each way.
When will the Mayor of Manchester and Transport for Greater Manchester get a grip on things and stop commuters from Rochdale having to pay the highest fares per mile in the country? the Greater Manchester Traincard, which covers all trains in the TfGM area and also Metrolink in the City Zone, is cheaper than many rail season tickets.
The new prices for the Traincard are: weekly – £30.60, monthly – £104.70 and annual – £990.
The ticket can be purchased from any rail ticket office.
A passport-type photo is required for a photocard if you haven’t already got one.
The boundaries of the ticket include Appley Bridge, Blackrod, Bromley Cross, Littleborough, Greenfield, Glossop, Hadfield, New Mills Central, New Mills Newtown (also including Disley), Bramhall, Cheadle Hulme (on the Crewe line), Hale, Glazebrook , Patricroft and Bryn.