The cost of travelling by train will be rising by 3.6% in the new
year. "Rail passengers will feel rightly miffed that rail
fares are going up when so much rail investment has been cancelled"
said Bruce Williamson from the campaign group Railfuture. "The real
cost of living is only going up by 2.6%, so again the government is
putting an ever-tighter squeeze on the poor old rail passenger,
while fuel duty for motorists has remained frozen for years.
There's a real double standard...Request free trial
The cost of travelling by train will be rising by 3.6% in the
new year. "Rail passengers will feel rightly miffed that rail
fares are going up when so much rail investment has been cancelled"
said Bruce Williamson from the campaign group Railfuture. "The real
cost of living is only going up by 2.6%, so again the government is
putting an ever-tighter squeeze on the poor old rail passenger,
while fuel duty for motorists has remained frozen for years.
There's a real double standard here: they want to phase out
diesel cars for electric, but with railways the reverse is true,
with electrification schemes cancelled in favour of diesel
traction. We recognise that rail industry costs have risen,
but if some of that fare rise money were put into making rail
industry more efficient then it could absorb the 1% difference and
passengers would benefit"
The government uses the July inflation figures to calculate
annual rail fare rises. The CPI figure is 2.6% but the higher RPI
figure ( 3.6%) is used for rail fares. "This has to end. The
government claims CPI is its preferred figure, so it needs to show
it also prefers the passengers' interests and start using CPI for
tickets too."
Notes to editors:
Railfuture is the UK's leading independent organisation
campaigning for better rail services for both passengers and
freight.
These price rises affect only England. Wales and
Scotland are slightly different
