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Cattletruck trains for years, warns watchdog
Nicholas Cecil, Chief Political Correspondent15 Oct 2008
COMMUTERS on London train services face severe overcrowding despite inflation-busting fare rises, spending watchdogs warned today.
The National Audit Office said passengers will endure cattle-truck conditions until 2014, when 1,300 extra carriages and longer platforms are introduced.
MPs warned of commuters' anger at the failure to ease overcrowding more quickly under the Department for Transport's £10 billion programme, especially as high inflation means some commuter fares could jump by 10 per cent next year, and other tickets by up to 20 per cent.
"The news that fares are likely to rise above inflation in these difficult times will infuriate many passengers who have no alternative but to travel day after day on packed trains," said Tory MP Edward Leigh, chairman of the Commons public accounts committee.
"Rush-hour crowding is expected to increase, especially on lines into London, until 1,300 new carriages come on stream. For passengers, this increased capacity cannot come too soon."
The NAO does praise the Department for Transport for getting better value for money from the franchises for the taxpayer after the abolition of the Strategic Rail Authority.
But shadow transport secretary Theresa Villiers warned that too many passengers are still suffering "cattle class accommodation" and blamed "excessive Government micromanagement".
The NAO said most passengers could expect to pay higher fares, highlighting how some tickets had jumped in price by 20 per cent. It also warned that train companies could enjoy a "windfall of extra revenue" if income targets are not changed.
The Department for Transport insisted it would do this to take into account the extra capacity which includes 900 more carriages for London services.
A spokesman said: "Our plans will ensure that the rail network can cope with more than 20 per cent growth by 2014, on a network which will be even safer and more reliable."
The NAO said increased passenger numbers and journey numbers would reduce the annual taxpayer subsidy of £811 million to £326 million by 2011/12.Most regulated fares, such as saver, peak-time and season tickets, have risen by inflation plus one per cent, under rules agreed between the train firms and Government.
Bosses will be able to raise some fares by 6.3 per cent next year, as the Retail Price Index was 5.3 per cent in the summer and companies have a two per cent leeway to increase some fares by more. Fares on Southeastern, which serves Charing Cross, Cannon Street and Victoria, could see 10 per cent rises.
The company is permitted a three per cent rise on top of RPI to pay for high-speed services on the Channel Tunnel link from Ashford into St Pancras, together with the two per cent flexibility. The rises in non-regulated fares had been six to seven per cent on average in previous years, according to the NAO.
Michael Roberts, chief executive of the Association of Train Operating Companies, said: "New rolling stock and associated works are planned, and train operators are keen to ensure decisions are made which allow them to deliver these vehicles as soon as possible."
Reader views (13)
So... nothing new then? these conditions existed when i first started work...in 1968! And they obviously havent got any better since then, but, at the ripe old age of 56 i have long since given up any hope of seeing any kind of inprovement on Londons trains.
- Ian, London, 03/11/2008 20:50
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...and another thing: the French built their first TGV line in 5 years. 265 miles. We took 11 years to build just 67 miles to link London with the Channel Tunnel.
If Brown had got his finger out, he could have used the £500bn he has twisted out the arms of motorists in the last 11 years to completely re-vamp the rail network.
So don't give me that tosh about not having enough time or money.
- Nobby Clark, Perth, Scotland, 16/10/2008 11:57
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Theresa villiers blamed "excessive Government micromanagement". This is a bit rich given it was her party that created Railtrack and because of failure to manage let alone micromanage led to a series of accidents where passengers paid the ultimate price. It took the new Labour government to take this area back into state control and all the tories cared about were the shareholders of Railtrack! The same as now with the banking crisis, Perhaps its because they are the shareholders!
As for rolling stock well following privatisation there was a period of over 1000 days when no new rolling stock was ordered I suppose they could not work out who was responsible for what after Humpty Dumpty (B.R) had been broken into so many pieces.
New stock is coming in and when the new Overground stock arrives in 2010 the existing stock will cascade to other lines. The same applies for rolling stock for the Thameslink upgrade that is underway.
Commuters should beware the way Boris Johnson is cutting back schemes and if they vote tory in 2010 dont expect a train let alone a seat as they have millionaires expecting payback time on inheritence tax.
- Melvyn Windebank, Canvey Island, Essex, 15/10/2008 18:04
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A more expensive worse service, and another 5 years to sort it out, sounds like broken Britain again. How come we've had Railways for over a century, and its still not working?.....politicians, the bane of our lives, Why do we all put up with them?
- Paul, Bolton, 15/10/2008 17:20
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'Cattletruck' trains the headline reads. It would be illegal to transport livestock in the way some of our trains convery humans. Another example of big money greed taking priority.
- Mark, Bournemouth England, 15/10/2008 15:55
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John Prescott came to power in 1997 promising to revolutionise travel in the UK via his infamous Green Paper. "Motorists will sit in jams, see trains whizz by and realise there is an alternative", to almost quote. And what did we get? A bus lane on the M4. A congestion charge in London. 453 out of 1,300 promised extra train carriages. £500bn of tax twisted out of the arms of motorists to throw at bloated civil servants and bankers.
To those who still hark back to the halcyon days of Thatcherism as being the root of all evil, remember that Blair, Brown and Co have had nearly 12 years to undo Mrs. T's ills. And have failed. It's no use promising or planning to do something - actually DO it!
- Nobby Clark, Perth, Scotland, 15/10/2008 15:11
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"Rush-hour crowding is expected to increase, especially on lines into London".
Are you kidding? In previous recessions, rail usage has plummeted, and it will again this time. Overcrowded commuter trains will probably be the ONLY problem to dissipate in the next 12 months.
- David, N10, 15/10/2008 15:04
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Double Plus Good
- P I Staker, London, 15/10/2008 14:55
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By the time the new trains arrive in 2013, the population will have grown again, so the trains will still be overcrowded. Looking at the article on uninsured drivers, the best way to commute these days seems to be to import a cheap car from Easter Europe illegally, don't insure it and drive it in without paying anything.
Why can't goverment invest in some decent public transport, instead of rubbish like £18billon ID cards, a £13 billion NHS computer system that doesn't work and speed cameras and a third Heathrow runway that no one wants?
- Liz, London, 15/10/2008 14:24
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You can't have it both ways - Mayor Johnston is cutting funding across the TfL budget - he has scrapped the DLR extension to Dagenham Dock, is ditching high-capacity bendy buses, has cut funding to the North London Line upgrade (cutting the proposed service frequency from 8 to 6 trains per hour), has left the Cross River Tram in intensive care and is thus far refusing to be drawn on the funding prospects of the East London Line extension. Not to mention the inflation-busing 10% rise in tube fares since he came to power. Perhaps if Mayor Johnston had shown the slightest concern for public transport users, the Shadow Transport Secretary's comments would be more credible.
- Mark Lee, Vauxhall, 15/10/2008 14:07
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Privatisation was John Major's last hurrah. It was a spiteful, botched job, done in a hurry because he knew the Tories were on the way out. It wasn't about improving the railways for the benefit of the taxpayer, it was a political gesture, and we're still paying for it. Pretty much the same as the gas, electricity, water and all the other privatisations they completed. We're still paying the penalty for those as well. The crocodile tears the Tories are shedding for the pensioners who will be cold this winter because they can't pay their bills are sick-making from the party who caused the problem.
- Val Daniels, Mijas Costa. Spain, 15/10/2008 14:03
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This is hardly news. We have an increasing population and people are working for longer. Therefore the new commuters each year are not offset by those retiring. Therefore of course the overcrowding is going to carry on getting worse. I do wish the authorities would stop researching the blindingly obvious.
- Suzanne, London, 15/10/2008 13:25
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But shadow transport secretary Theresa Villiers ... blamed "excessive Government micromanagement".
Honestly, what utter rubbish. You have no answers to the problem. It is entirely due to the Conservatives' failed privatisation that we continue to have useless, overpriced, overcrowded railways.
Labour has just tinkered around the edges. We need railways under not-for-profit non-government social ownership, something akin to the building societies, not rapacious, greedy, short sighted private management.
- Robert C, London UK, 15/10/2008 11:37
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