Commuter misery of the great train rip-off

BITTER gall for millions of long-suffering train passengers across the UK who have learned that from January, they are to be hit by hefty 3.6 per cent increases in regulated fares, adding hundreds of pounds to many season tickets.

Indeed, yet again they’ve fallen victim to the old con-trick whereby fare rises – like the usurious interest rates on student loans – are pegged to the outdated and discredited Retail Price Index measure of inflation, which almost invariably outstrips the more accurate Consumer Price Index.

At a time when state pensions, child benefit and other Government outgoings are adjusted according to the lower CPI, how can ministers justify letting train companies go on using a measure resoundingly rejected by the Office for National Statistics?

Even if Britain’s railways were the world’s most efficient, such underhand treatment would be unacceptable. As it is, rail bosses on seven-figure salaries run appalling services – overcrowded, strike-ridden and chronically unreliable.

The cost of travelling by train on some of Scotland’s busiest routes has rocketed by up to 50 per cent in the last decade.

Transport Minister Humza Yousaf claims to be working to ensure rail travel ‘is fair, affordable and an attractive alternative to travelling by car’.

Hard-pressed commuters may think he has spent too long in the back of a chauffered government limo and recall his admission that he ‘is no expert’ on transport.

Meanwhile, the skulduggery must end and UK ministers must peg all inflation-linked price rises to the CPI.