Supporters of Transport 2000 and Friends of the Earth plan a protest on Thursday 21 March 2002 aimed at saving the Network Railcard.

MP Jane Griffiths will join a group of protesters at London Victoria station at 09.00 in a ritual attempt to prevent a greedy train operator armed with a huge pair of scissors cutting up the card.

Train companies are trying to reduce the discounts available on off-peak fares with the railcard. Transport 2000 has already branded this fares hike a "slap in the face for families, shoppers, leisure travellers and the low-paid" and campaigners believe it could signal the beginning of the end of the Network Railcard.

The changes will affect off-peak rail passengers throughout the former Network SouthEast area, which stretches as far as Exeter and Weymouth in the south-west, Worcester, Banbury and Northampton in the Midlands and Cambridge, Harwich and Colchester in East Anglia. There are 360,000 Network Railcards in use.

Jane Griffiths has tabled an Early Day Motion calling on the Association of Train Operating Companies to reverse its decision to introduce new restrictions on using the card.

From 2 June 2002 discounts will no longer be available on fares under