Rail fares rocketed by 60% under the Tories, as Labour announces cost freeze

As Labour freezes rail fares for the first time in 30 years to deliver real savings for millions of travellers, the cost to commuters under the Tories has been revealed.

• For years, rail passengers have faced relentless fares hikes – with tickets rocketing by 60 per cent under the last Conservative government.

• The Tories piled misery onto the commuters through a string of strikes that disrupted journeys and stung rail revenue by £850 million.

• Labour's fares freeze is expected to save existing rail passengers £600 million in 2026/27 and will be available across more than a billion train journeys.

• A typical commuter travelling to work three days a week using flexi-season tickets will save £804 per year if travelling from Birmingham to London, £468 per year between Newcastle and York, or £284 between Manchester and Sheffield.
  
  
• But Labour is not stopping at freezing fares. Passengers are regularly frustrated by how difficult it is to buy the right ticket, so the government is fixing that through an expanded pay as you go system – which will allow passengers to benefit from tap in and tap out contactless payments, with daily and weekly capping. This December, another 50 stations will go live with PAYG, including Stansted and Southend Airports. Over the next few years, it will reach more than 90 stations across Greater Manchester and the West Midlands.

• Alongside cutting the cost of travel, Labour is putting passengers first by establishing a powerful passenger watchdog to give passengers a voice and hold train operators to account.

Notes:

• Between 2010 and 2024, rail fares increased by a total of 60 per cent across all tickets.
  Source - Office of Road and Rail: https://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/statistics/finance/rail-fares/table-7182-average-change-in-fares-by-ticket-type/

• The ORR publishes annual statistics measuring the change in prices charged by train operating companies to rail passengers, normally introduced in March of each year.
  
  
• ORR Table 7180 provides an index of rail fares since 1995 with fares in 1995 = 100. In 2010 the index for rail fares for all operators and all tickets was 176.5 (This means that fares in 2010 were 76.5% higher than in 1995). In 2024 the rail fare index was 282.3. The percentage change between the rail fares index in 2024 and 2010 is 60% (282.3-176.5)/176.5.

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