Price hike is another blow
An early Christmas present arrived the other day. Sorry, not a present, I meant yet another reminder of the continuing rail rip-off across the UK.
Despite the appalling delays, crowded carriages, stop skipping and overall poor service, rail fares are set to rise again on January 2 by a whopping 3.1 per cent.
There had been demands that fares – which rose by 3.4 per cent last January – should be frozen given all the problems thousands of people faced following the timetable chaos earlier this year. But, no.
So the rise will add £148 to a season ticket from Brighton to London (from £4,696 to £4,844), £130 for Gloucester to Birmingham (from £4,108 to £4,238), and £100 for Manchester to Liverpool (from £3,152 to £3,252). Fares will also rise in Scotland, but not by quite so much as the Scottish Government caps regulated off-peak fare increases at RPI minus one percentage point.
You might think that with so much being forked out by passengers for rail travel, people could at least rely on a good service. Yet punctuality has fallen to its lowest level in 12 years. Hardly surprising then that fewer than half of passengers are satisfied with the value for money of train tickets.
Our trains need to be run with passengers at the top of the priority list; people are suffering with rail services that don’t even deliver the basics.
Without doubt value for money needs to be a key part of the upcoming government rail review and passengers must receive automatic compensation for delays and cancellations.
In the meantime, one way to beat the rise is to renew your season tickets in the days before the annual rise comes into force. You can also save money by getting a railcard, travelling off-peak and booking in advance, although these options are not available for many journeys.
Of course the train companies say the rise will mean more investment, resulting in 7,000 new carriages, an extra 6,400 services a week by 2021, and more seats on more reliable, comfortable and frequent trains. We will believe it when we are firmly ensconced in one of those seats and arrive at our destination on time.
Remember to email me your consumer questions askalex@which.co.uk