Rail fares rise 63%

... while the boss of Scotland’s trains pockets £360,000 a year

TRAIN fares in parts of Scotland have jumped by an astonishing 63 per cent in the past decade – while the salary of the country’s top rail boss has risen to £360,000 a year.

Passengers will be hit with a 1.9 per cent increase in peak fares across the ScotRail network from next January – the latest in a long line of annual increases.

Neil Bibby, transport spokesman for Scottish Labour, said: ‘Rail passengers are already facing overcrowded trains, delays and cancellations and now they are being hit with yet another hike in fares. Not only are fares going up, they’re rising faster than wages. That can’t possibly represent value for money for passengers.

‘We should be reinvesting the profits back into our railways here, rather than sending money abroad or into the pockets of shareholders. It’s time to put passengers before profit.’

In the past ten years, the average salary for a full-time worker in Scotland has increased by 23.1 per cent, from £22,261 in 2006 to £27,404 now.

But a Scottish Mail on Sunday investigation shows ticket costs have increased at a faster rate.

Passengers on the Edinburgh Inverness service have seen fares rise by more than any other route in the past decade, from £47.40 for a peak return in 2006 to £76 now.

The latest £1.50 rise, to be imposed in January, will take the fare to £77.50 – 63 per cent higher than in 2006.

Meanwhile, a peak return from Edinburgh to Glasgow was £16.20 in 2006 but will rise to £23.30 in January – a 47 per cent increase.

A peak return from Aberdeen to Edinburgh has increased from £57.50 in 2006 to £63.40 now – and will rise by a further £1.20.

In the same period, salaries paid to train bosses appear to have increased by a similar rate.

In 2005/06, ScotRail’s then managing director Helen Dickson was paid £232,708. Current managing director Phil Verster’s basic salary is higher at £237,500, but he is also entitled to performancerelated bonuses worth up to 50 per cent of his pay – which could rise to nearly £360,000.

Scottish Conservative transport spokesman Alex Johnstone said: ‘For anything to increase at that rate in a decade is incredible. Commuters will undoubtedly feel the level of service hasn’t improved accordingly and in many areas has got worse.’

The latest 1.9 per cent increase in peak-time regulated fares, determined by the Scottish Government and linked to July’s Retail Price Index, was confirmed last week.

Anthony Smith, chief executive of the independent watchdog Transport Focus, said: ‘For some rail passengers, any fare rise is going to feel unfair. It’s time for the Government to rethink the way it calculates fares.’

A Transport Scotland spokesman said: ‘We have taken steps to mitigate the effects of fare rises by including caps within the franchise contract so most fares are pegged to or below the RPI rate of inflation. For certain offpeak fares, Ministers have capped rises at 1 per cent below RPI inflation, which is a lower rate of inflation than the rest of the UK and a fall in fares in real terms.’

A spokesman for ScotRail owner Abellio said: ‘Since we have taken over the franchise, we’ve taken pride in offering great value fares.’