‘Kick in wallet’ as rail users pay more for chaos
Fares up despite year of poor service and delays
YORKSHIRE’S LONG-SUFFERING rail users will get a punishing “kick in the wallet” today as controversial fare rises take effect after a year blighted by timetable chaos and strike action.
Fares have gone up by an average of 3.1 per cent, adding more than £100 to the cost of train travel for some annual season ticket holders.
Passengers across the North have endured widespread service delays and cancellations since the botched introduction of new timetables in May.
Northern services have also been disrupted by repeated strike action in a dispute over the role of guards on trains that has now entered its third calendar year.
The new fares mean the cost of an annual Leeds-Skipton season ticket has gone up by £60 to £1,960. The price of an annual ticket for journeys between Halifax and Manchester has risen by £84 to £2,756.
Season ticket increases in other parts of the country include £148 for Brighton to London (£4,696 to £4,844), £130 for Gloucester to Birmingham (£4,108 to £4,238) and £100 for Manchester to Liverpool (£3,152 to £3,252).
Rail union leaders, politicians and campaigners are today due to stage protests against the fare rises at Leeds’s main train station and in other cities nationwide.
Leeds City Council leader Coun Judith Blake, who also leads on transport for the West Yorkshire Combined Authority, said: “The New Year should be a moment of optimism but rail passengers in the North will struggle to see the positive side as they are asked to pay higher prices today.
“Punctuality and reliability remain well below the levels required to deliver the service passengers need and our economic ambitions require.”
Henri Murison, director of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, said commuters affected by last year’s disruption should get back the fare increases as a discount.
Criticism also came from Anthony Smith, chief executive of the Transport Focus watchdog organisation, who said: “Rail fares are going up after a year blighted by timetable chaos, poor performance and strikes. Until day-to-day reliability returns, with fewer significant delays and cancellations, passenger trust won’t begin to recover.”
Bruce Williamson, from campaign group Railfuture, said: “After a terrible year of timetable chaos, passengers are being rewarded with yet another kick in the wallet.”
Today’s fare rises vary slightly between different train operating companies, with Northern’s average increase coming in at 3.2 per cent. The figure for London North Eastern Railway (LNER) – the publicly-owned operator which runs services along the flagship London-Leeds-Scotland
East Coast Main Line – is 3.4 per cent. Labour is calling on the Government to freeze prices on routes that bore the brunt of 2018’s timetable shambles.
Shadow Transport Secretary and Middlesbrough MP Andy McDonald, who is due to visit Leeds City Station today, said: “The rail fare increases are an affront to everyone who has had to endure years of chaos on Britain’s railways.”
The rises were announced at the end of November by the Rail Delivery Group, which represents private train operators and Government-owned Network Rail.
Its chief executive, Paul Plummer, said at the time: “Money from fares is underpinning the improvements to the railway that passengers want and which ultimately help boost the wider economy.” The Department for Transport, meanwhile, acknowledged that “any fare increase is unwelcome”, but also insisted it was “not fair to ask people who do not use trains to pay more for those who do”.
Transport Secretary Chris Grayling last night announced that a railcard extending halfprice child fares to 16 and 17-yearolds will be introduced in time for the start of the new academic year in September.
Another new railcard aimed at 26 to 30-year-olds goes on general sale at midday today, with the Department for Transport saying it will allow an extra three million people to get a third off the cost of their travel.
Mr Grayling claimed the Government’s “record investment” in the rail network would help deliver “frequent, affordable and reliable journeys” for passengers.
He added: “Today’s announcement of a new 16 & 17 Railcard could cut the cost of travel by hundreds of pounds a year for young people and their parents.”
IF THE trains ran on time – and this region enjoyed the levels of investment taken for granted in London and the South East – today’s average fare rise of 3.1 per cent could be justified.
Yet this is not the case. Not only is punctuality at a 13-year low according to national figures, but commuters here have suffered months of misery after last year’s botched timetable changes.
And, to cap it off, the phasing out of Northern’s fleet of antiquated Pacers – buses converted into makeshift trains in the 1980s – is being delayed because hold-ups to track improvements in the North West mean new rolling stock cannot be introduced as planned.
They were only supposed to operate for a decade. Yet the fact they are still operating, and that Theresa May’s government thinks this is remotely acceptable, is indicative of Transport Secretary Chris Grayling’s contempt and why calls from Tory and Labour MPs to freeze fares should have been heeded.
Eighteen months after Mr Grayling started breaking the promises that he made to Yorkshire commuters in the 2017 election, it is, frankly, scandalous that he is still in his job when so many people continue to have their lives disrupted by late-running or nonexistent trains.
It is not just the railways that he has mismanaged. He compromised the justice system before moving to the Department for Transport where his failure to implement measures to combat drones led to pre-Christmas chaos at Gatwick Airport.
And this was before it emerged that his department had awarded a controversial £13.8m contract to run extra ferries in the event of a no-deal Brexit to a company with no ships and which has not previously operated a service.
Given the DfT’s lamentable track record when it comes to awarding rail franchises, Mr Grayling’s judgment does not inspire confidence as passengers dig deeper into their pockets for pay for a third-rate service.
It begs these questions – what will it actually take for Mr Grayling to be sacked and when can passengers expect the DfT to intervene if services do not improve rapidly in the New Year? Over to you, Prime Minister.