Rail fare rises another stealth tax, say MPs

Angry MPs attacked ministers after rail passengers experienced rises of up to 10 per cent on season tickets at the start of the year.

Nationally, the average rise was six per cent - well above the inflation rate of three per cent. However, Tory MP Greg Barker said that the eight per cent rises on the Southeastern network were to pay government franchise premiums and to meet the cost of high-speed "javelin" trains which benefit only a fraction of commuters.

The MP for Bexhill and Battle reminded the Commons debate on rail fares that the Government had repeatedly given assurances that rail fares would rise by only one per cent above inflation and said: "Why have we seen these huge national price increases? The Government has been forced to oblige the train operating companies to pay to them huge franchise premium payments. The only way these payments can be met is to increase the fares, in effect another way of them clawing money from the public. In effect, a stealth tax."

Mr Barker, who is also shadow climate change minister, said ministers preached that people should switch to public transport to reduce emissions but added: "The Government's mismanagement of our rail network over the last decade has meant that it has no long-term strategy to cope with the increasing demand for rail travel other than to simply price people off the railways."

Liberal Democrat MP Norman Baker said: "It is the Government's policy to push up rail fares above inflation every year. It is not sensible or defensible."

However, transport minister Paul Clark played down these concerns and said: "Since we have been in government there have been unprecedented levels of investment that have gone into our railways day in, day out, to actually rectify substantial under-investment that had lasted for decades before."