Fare increase misery for rail passengers

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

Railfuture's website can be found at: www.railfuture.org.uk

Follow Railfuture on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Railfuture

For further information and comment please contact:

Bruce Williamson, media spokesman
Tel: 0117 927 2954 Mobile: 07759 557389
media at railfuture.org.uk