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Energy costs to force huge rise in rail fares
Dick Murray30.06.08
Commuters face inflation-busting increases in train fares as rail companies are hit by the economic turmoil, the Standard can reveal.
Annual season tickets will jump hundreds of pounds amid massive hikes of between two and three times the rate of inflation.
The soaring ticket prices - described today as a "scandal" - are being pushed ever higher by rising costs of electricity and diesel.
Some ticket prices will soar by 10 per cent or more, while hundreds of thousands of commuters face average rises of between six and eight per cent.
The new fares would come into force in January. Rail chiefs base their increases on the Retail Price Index for July, a figure City analysts predict will be 4.5 per cent or more.
Most rail operators, who make hundreds of millions of pounds profit, are limited to increasing fares by one per cent above the RPI, meaning a 5.5 per cent rise across most fares but some are allowed higher increases.
Worst hit will be commuters travelling from Kent by Southeastern who face average increases of around eight per cent, with some routes seeing increases of more than 10 per cent.
Theresa Villiers, shadow transport secretary, said: "All the signs are that the July inflation figures will mean more rail fare misery for commuters.
"The commuter is paying the price for the Government's failure to keep costs down on our railways."
Mrs Villiers added: "When the next lot of fare hikes come, Ruth Kelly's finger prints will be all over them. To add insult to injury, thousands of people have to travel in trains so crowded it would be illegal to transport animals in those conditions."
Gerry Doherty, general secretary of the transport union TSSA, said: "It is a scandal that the rail companies have this trigger which allows them to put up fares every year.
"With the economic downturn everyone is cutting prices - all the chain stores are having sales to attract custom - yet the rail industry is always increasing prices."
Train companies stressed that actual fare increases were not yet known.
A spokeswoman for Southeastern said: "We do not know what the January increases will be and a lot will depend on how much Travelcard - governed by Transport for London - prices will increase. But, if RPI rises, then passengers will be paying more."
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Great, another 8% rise for us in Gillingham, and at the end of next year most of our current fast trains to London will be withdrawn to force us onto the Javelin trains which won't get us in any quicker, will deposit us at St Pancras, a tube ride from where we actually want to go and will cost us another 35% on top of the already inflated fares!
- Roy Stilling, Gillingham, Kent
Is there any good news any more or has it been privatised?
- Steve, London
The way the rail service is operated is the most horrendous form of monopoly abuse. What's the alternative? Drive? Quit your job? They know 80%+ of season ticket holders probably have no choice but to pay up.
What I think they should do is cover signalling and core 'non-train' stuff with an entity that gets x% of the turnover across the region/network. Then let any train company run trains wherever they're needed, and pay them proportional to number of seats available.
As for fares, make fares a key point in appointing the 'main operator' for a route, not how much cash they'll give the treasury. Or if you must do it that way, fix rises to RPI+0 and insist on a case being produced and passed by the treasury before coming in to effect, and allow commuter fares to become tax deductible to cut the double taxation.
- Peter Read, Worthing -> London
