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Rail firms double prices to make up for peak fare cuts
Dick Murray04.09.09
Rail commuters face a record 143 per cent increase in the cost of travel as train companies sidestep government regulations aimed at keeping prices down.
Passengers using a travel card on the 8.16am Market Harborough to St Pancras service will see fares rise from £37.50 to £92, 143.5 per cent.
Travel card holders using the same train from Kettering will see fares rise this weekend from £36.50 to £82 (124.7 per cent). From Wellingborough the cost goes up from £35.50 to £78 (119.7 per cent).
Many off-peak fares on routes from the West to and from Paddington increase by up to 20 per cent from Sunday.
Industry sources warned that train companies, which make tens of millions of pounds' profits a year, are planning huge increases in unregulated fares, such as off-peak.
They have been forced to reduce peak ticket prices - which are regulated - from January because of plunging inflation.
Passengers face more hefty increases in off-peak fares in January.
The biggest increases are on East Midland Trains - owned by rail and coach giant Stagecoach, which made pre-tax profits of £196.4million for the last year.
East Midland has forbidden passengers from using the combined rail and Tube travel card on the 8.16am service. They will instead have to buy far more expensive tickets.
A spokeswoman said the increases were being made "to bring stations south of Leicester into line with other stations on our network".
Ashwin Kumar, director of national rail watchdog Passenger Focus, condemned the increases.
"This is yet another example of a back door fare increase by tinkering with ticket restrictions. Passengers will be aghast that a train company can double the cost of these fares in one fell swoop."
He called on the rail industry and the Government to "produce a fare system which is affordable and transparent" if it is to keep passengers using trains.
Gerry Doherty, leader of the TSSA transport union, said passengers were being "ripped off" because they were a captive market: "Rather than pass on the January drop in fares they actually want customers to fund it."
Peak fares are restricted to inflation plus one per cent. Inflation is based on the July figure when it fell to minus 1.4 per cent.
That means, in real terms, the operators will have to reduce most peak fares in January. Transport Secretary Lord Adonis firmly rejected their appeal to avoid this.
First Great Western, which runs trains into Paddington, said: "It is a challenge to balance the need to encourage customers to use our services while ensuring we generate enough income."
Reader views (26)
If they're really making tens of millions of pounds each year in profit then this begs 2 questions:
Why are tickets so costly?
and
Why are the train services so god-damn pathetic?
if they were pathetic but cheap that would be fine. same as if they were costly but awesome. but they're neither.
- Matt, Bristol
Last month, I spent a few days in Brittany. There are no flights from the London area to Brest, but I was able to find a return flight from Southampton for £120. Imagine my dismay when I discovered that Stagecoach-owned South West Trains wanted £60 to convey me from Leatherhead to Southampton Airport.
Knowing I could travel to Paris and back for less, I checked the Rail-Europe website and came up with a return fare London to Brest of £134. Needless to say I snapped it up. I was also able to travel to St Pancras using my Oyster card and thus avoid the punitive fares of SWT. When will they ever learn?
Incidentally, a couple of years ago I took a very comfortable Eurocity train from Krakow to Berlin - 330 miles - for the princely sum of £20!
- John, Leatherhead, UK
Why do we pay the highest fares in the world?. Why are we expected to pay above inflation increases every year? Why are the train companies such incompetent greedy pigs.
- David, London
It has always been a problem with any labour government to sort out commercial pricing, and they always make a mess of it because none of them are in the frame for doing it and they never have or will be!
The season ticket holders who use the services for long distances daily are the 'bread & butter' income for the system, as should be the freight.
If government politically strips these prices for daily travellers it is clear, with the fixed costs that railways have, that others must go up to balance the fixed costs.
Yet another no brainer from the wonderful labour.
- John Clifford, luzern, Switzerland
Travelling by train these days is a luxury few can afford,unless you are earning good money.These obscene fare increases have no justification,morally or financially,I can remember when the trains were only for early commuters and off peak poor people,those days are long gone,-I believe our train fares are the highest in europe,possibly even the world,bring back steam trains!,at least they were funny whilst choking you to death!!.
- Gulag Inmate, Canterbury Communist Britain.
Margaret Thatcher said; private companies will run the Nationalised industries more efficiently because they have the expertise, the ability, and the business experience of success, which Nationalised Industries lacked etc.
Today we have a Nation run by Businessmen, propped up by Nationalized Tax Payers.
Once we privatise Tax Paying; all will be rosy once again, in Great Britain.
God Bless you Maggie; you were a true Iron Maiden; a coffin full of spikes.
- Mickinlondon, london
It is 74 miles between Prague and Hradec Kralove in the Czech Republic. The train service is always on time, there are plenty of seats and it costs less than £6.
It is 4.5 miles between Hounslow and Kew Bridge. The train service is often late and packed out and it costs £4.50 and about to rise.
- Paul R, London
'A spokeswoman said the increases were being made to bring stations south of Leicester into line with other stations on our network.'
I suppose when the other stations are up to standard, East Midland will lower prices then. I think not. :-@!
Has Frank of the Home Counties pipped in yet? I suppose he'll be blaming this on Labour again.
- Chris, London
This is why Im moving abroad next week for good. This country has become so expensive. How do people survive?
- Tom, Camden
Maybe I'm old, but I don't recall the rail operators being exactly shy when it came to hiking prices before they were privatised.
- Paul, London
Thanks for nothing Gordon Brown! There is so much you could do to help this country... yet you let the greediest and most morally corrupt continue to take advantage of us. We could all strike and refuse to use any transport, that would work and we could force them to low the prices… problem being no one would do this. We will continue to let them push up the prices; we will continue to pay for their extortionately priced tickets… there have been revolutions before and will be again… unfortunately I think they will push us for many years to come before we turn.
- Paul, London
There you have it Bankers are essential and can be subsidised by 700 billion but Mr Joe public is an idiot who can be squeezed out of every last penny of their income. Maybe 700 Billion would have been better invested in a free upgraded Transport system..but then think of all that Oil Tax Revenue lost....the Political expression for the situation is buggered if you do and buggered if you dont..thats why theres so many standing on the trains !.
- Clif, London
this country is finished because of labour....leave while you can
- Rsaviour, london england
Steady on. All this car is cheaper stuff will just encourage Gordovski to increase taxes on fuel again.
- Bj, London
The highest train fares in the world, the highest taxpayer subsidies in the world, and the biggest fare inreases in the world. Where is the money actually going? Directors' bonuses perhaps? The motor car is now the obvious choice for travellers in the UK.
- Neil, London, London UK
nationalise the railways...It should be 50% cheaper than travelling by car. My commute by train costs £20 per day, it is two hours. In the car its is up to 90mins and 12 quid. No brainer.
- Darren, london
Time to re-nationalise the railways and cut out all this obscene money-grabbing nonsense.
- Reuben Camara, Morecambe Compound, EUSSR
Isobel - Totally agree!
Four of us went to London to see a show, I live in Sutton. It would have cost us £18 in total for the travelcards. In the end we drove and parked in a multi strey which charged no more than a flat rate of £15, we were parked for over 6 hours parking. After the show finished we were home within an hour!
Much better option, especially seeing as we would have missed the last train at 11:16 from Victoria as well.
- Tim, London
Might actually get a seat now !
- Brian, Wiltshire
I deserted the railway five years ago, and took my taxes with me. Earlier this year I was almost tempted back to the UK by a great job offer at a major publisher in Central London. The pay looked fairly decent, until I worked out how much I would be left with at the end of each month after forking out for rail travel, and turned the offer down. This government might not care that high-earning professionals are leaving in their droves (I know several who are now living in Australia), but I doubt that the fiscal shortfall is being offset by immigrants, many of whom are likely to be on little more than minimum wage and therefore paying next to no tax.
- Richard, Madrid, Spain
At the begining of the year it cost me £35 to get to Euston from Carlisle and back, booking well in advance. Now, for a trip in October it will cost £78.50. It is now cheaper for me to fly from Newcastle To Stansted and hire a car. So what happened to the Governments mantra thats chanted every time fuel tax goes up 'it's to combat carbon emmissions'. If they made rail travel attractive I would use it, but if they continue with their ludicrous timetabling, whereby if I leave the capital on a saturday night I face a journey (that normally takes 3.5hours) of 13 hours. I would also assume, in the light of the increases, that the rail companies will not receive their