Posted 13th August 2013 | 9 Comments
Regulated rail fares set to rise by average of 4.1%
REGULATED rail fares, which include most season tickets, are set to rise by 4.1 per cent in January, following the news that Retail Price Inflation was 3.1 per cent in July. Demonstrations protesting about the expected rise have been taking place around the country, led by unions and transport campaigners.
The increase is based on the current Government formula, which is RPI + 1 per cent. This is lower than originally planned. It had been announced that the 2013 and 2014 increases would be RPI + 3 per cent, but this was reduced following a later official u-turn.
The figure of 4.1 per cent is an average. Some fares may rise more or less than this, because train operators may use a 'flex' adjustment of up to 5 per cent on individual routes.
Many fares are not affected by this formula. These include off-peak fares for shorter journeys, 'anytime' fares on intercity services and first class tickets, all of which are left to the discretion of individual operators.
The rises apply in England, and are also subject to final confirmation when the Autumn Spending Review is published later this year. Previous changes to the formula were announced at that stage, but a rethink is not expected this time.
Peak time fares in Scotland will increase only by RPI, in other words 3.1 per cent, while ScotRail said all its off-peak fares will remain unchanged, which will benefit four out of 10 passengers north of the border.
The transport secretary Patrrick McLoughlin said the Government was increasing the level of investment in the railways, which were nonetheless 'hugely expensive' to run.
He explained: "The taxpayer overall is still putting in huge amounts of money... and I'm afraid the passenger also has to make his contribution."
Labour’s shadow transport secretary Maria Eagle said a future Labour government would abolish the 5 per cent 'flex' which can be added to selected fares, although others must fall to maintain the 4.1 per cent average for each operator.
She explained: "At a time when wages are stagnant or falling, it is completely out of touch for Ministers to allow fares to go up by as much as 9.1 per cent again, yet allow private train companies to walk away with £305 million from passengers each year. Labour would ban train companies from hiking fares beyond a strict one per cent above inflation limit, introduce a legal right to the cheapest ticket and crack down on rising car parking charges at stations.”
The policy is also being bitterly criticised by consumer groups and unions, with the TUC claiming that rail fares have risen by 40 per cent since 2008.
TUC general secretary Frances O'Grady called for renationalisation of the industry, and said the government should 'put evidence before ideology'. She added: "Wage-busting fare rises are not even going on much needed service improvements. Passenger and public subsidies are lining the pockets of the shareholders."
RMT general secretary Bob Crow said: "This latest inflation-busting hike in fares is a kick in the teeth for the British people who are condemned for another year to pay the highest prices in Europe to travel on clapped-out, overcrowded and unreliable trains while the private operators are laughing all the way to the bank."
Demonstrators have been protesting at about 50 stations, including key hubs such as London King's Cross, Birmingham New Street and Manchester Piccadilly.
Campaign for Better Transport chief executive Stephen Joseph said: "The Coalition pledged to make fares fairer. Instead, they've continued to ramp up the cost of train travel, far out-stripping incomes. This isn't just bad for commuters, it's bad for the economy too. If the Government is serious about growth it needs to stop pricing people out of jobs."
"Getting to work is now the biggest single monthly outgoing for many commuters - more than food, more than housing. One of the surest ways of stamping on any green shoots of recovery is to price people off the trains and out of the jobs market. For the sake of the economy we should end above inflation fares increases now and start planning for fare reductions."
There was also a protest outside the Department for Transport in Westminster, where TSSA general secretary Manuel Cortes handed in a personal letter urging rail minister Norman Baker to set a deadline for ending the annual 'inflation plus' fare rises.
Mr Cortes said: "What we want is an end to these crippling year in year out rail fare rises, starting in 2015 with RPI minus 1 per cent. We already have the highest rail fares in Europe and we want a firm commitment from Norman to scrap the present formula."
Reader Comments:
Views expressed in submitted comments are that of the author, and not necessarily shared by Railnews.
Tim, Devon
I don't consider Bristol the South West ;)
Wales seems to be getting electrification because they have a strong political lobby group.
Chris Neville-Smith, Durham, England
Rainews can correct me if I'm wrong here, but as far as I can tell, there does not appear to be any rules about evening investment over the country, only rules on which bits of the rail network are short of capacity and which schemes have favourable BCRs. That seems to mean that the north-east and south-west keep getting overlooked for investment, as the only real improvements that could be made are investment-heavy constructions of new lines.
Still, the status quo is better for the north-east than the self-appointed rail experts from the New Economics Foundation. They declare that we from the north-east do not want a saving for 40 minues to London and 80 minutes to Birmingham. Instead, we want no improvements to Birmingham, marginal improvements to London with an ECML upgrade (if we're lucky), and no improvements to local rail transport anywhere in the north-east, because apparently a Leeds tramway is the same thing. Oh, and we get a saving of 5-10 minutes to Manchester on a new tunnel through the Pennines. Whoop-de-bloody-do. But, hey, who are we silly northerners to argue with a London-based think tank?
D, Newcastle
Hi Tim
There is some electrification going on in the South West, with new trains coming for Western services, south west trains are due to take delivery to the re-engineered class 458/5's later in the year giving new train capacity to the south west and they have also just issued a tender call for an additional order between 135 - 250 new rail cars so thats an investment in new trains. this is all in additional to capacity at reading station which has had investment of millions.
That said i agree with your comments fairs go up equally across the country yet the investment seems disproportionate! The main assumption is that the majority of journeys start or terminate in london so the majority of the investment is around service improvements to the capital.
Tony Pearce, Reading
Over the last 10 years Bus Fares have gone up much more than rail fares. My own benchmark of Tilehurst to Reading has seen the Bus Fare which used to be half that of the rail ticket rise to more than the standard rail return. This fare increase will of course go ahead unless there is a dramatic fall in rail use.(2% or more). With rail passengers apparently immune to the recent price rises continuing to use the trains more and more as the price goes up, there seems no point in cancelling any fare rise.
Tim, Devon
Other parts of the network have always and will always be given priority. That's why the service around here is so poor. The Tarka Line (BarnstapleExeter) is the perfect example, the service is so poor most people use their cars. All they've done recently is replace the WW2-era track, hardly what I'd call an upgrade. It's still a single line and it's still served by Pacers and Sprinters.
The line between Plymouth and Exeter is still extremely slow and all services that come through Exeter are vulnerable to flooding. They're not even talking about flood proofing the lines through Exeter. All Network Rail want to do is mount their equipment higher up so that it doesn't get damaged when they let the line flood. I think that shows you just how little anyone cares about the South West.
Tim, Devon
No improvements into the South West, yet we still get fare increases. Fair?
(What about new passing loop on Falmouth branch; station upgrades at St Austell, Newquay, Truro; infrastructure upgrades on Barnstaple branch; new station announced for Exmouth branch; work underway on providing 30min headways Plymouth-Penzance? No big ticket items like electrification or new trains as yet, it is true, but there are other far busier parts of the network which arguably deserve priority. Fares in the south east are also higher already, so RPI+1 means greater increases for LSE passengers too--Ed.)
Dave, Durham
The Liverpool train comes at a loss to to the airport service. You will still see only an hourly tpe service which will at least close the present 2 hour gaps. The additional tpe service starts at york and effectively replaces the Newcastle airport train and will see an extra 190 seats per hour across the pennines.
of course tho this comes at a cost of additional train crews, track access charges etc. Increasing the existing 185's to 4 car with 70 seats in an additional trailer carriage would increase capacity by 280 seats per hour on the present service. I cannot figure out why the mentality is to run more trains, when clearly what we really need is bigger trains which would actually cost less to run.
Melvyn Windebank, Canvey Island, Essex
Surely its time to question whether railways actually need increses based on this method of calculation and to whom are these increses going to?
After all the railways were privatised nearly 20 years ago so why is government still setting rail fares given they still don't set BA fares!
While we keep seeing fuel duty increases of as little as 1p cancelled. Surely its time fuel duty increased by the same formula from the same date with the increase meaning the increase in VAT would be cancelled out?
Perhaps it's time unions co-ordinated a pay demand of the same amount across all sectors!
Chris Neville-Smith, Durham, England
If it's any consolation, the improvements which there fare rises are paying for should start to come to fruition next year. For me, it's the extra train per hour between Newcastle and Liverpool, which will be very useful.