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RMT helpline 0800 3763706 :: january 2008 :: RMTnews
13
Private rail operators have announced the
usual annual above-inflation increases for
regulated fares this month as well as hikes
as high as 14 per cent on some un-regulated
off-peak tickets.
RMT immediately called for an end to
private-sector profiteering after Association
of Train Operating Companies (ATOC) made
the astonishing claim: "We need the revenue
from fares to pay for investment in the
railway for the benefit of passengers”.
RMT general secretary Bob Crow said
that the private franchises are interested
only in lining their shareholders’ pockets
and the failure to impose a sensible fares
policy is having a direct effect on the
environment.
“Talk about the need to get people out of
their cars to reduce carbon emissions is just
so much hot air if the privateer train
operators are allowed to impose another
round of rip-off rail-fare rises.
“The government promised to take fares
policy in hand, but the privateers have once
more been given the given the green light to
fill their boots with passengers’ and
taxpayers’ money.
“We need substantial investment in
greater capacity and new lines, yet the
private sector is allowed to drain £1 billion
a year from the railway industry,” he said.
The Transport Select Committee has also
highlighted the nonsense of a set-up in
which private operators keep siphoning
profits, shoulder almost no financial risk
and get to walk away when it all goes
wrong.
FAIR?
Season tickets and saver and standard day
returns will rise by 4.8 per cent on average
on January 2 2008. Others, such as cheap
day returns and long-distance open and
advance fares will go up by 5.4 per cent.
Commuters travelling to London will be
worst hit. A weekly season ticket from
Hayes in Kent to London will rise by 14.5
per cent from £24.80 to £28.50.
A similar ticket from Bexleyheath into
the capital will go up from £25.10 to £28.50
or 13 per cent, and for commuters in
Ashford, Kent, a London-bound journey will
rise by 10.5 per cent from £78.30 to £86.50
a week.
ATOC had the gall to claim that the
"small increase" in average rail fares “had
been a factor in the enormous growth in rail
travel seen over the past ten years".
However, unions and passenger groups
have criticised the size of the rises.
Rail watchdog Passenger Focus executive
Anthony Smith said: "Passengers will be
dismayed that fares are going up again,
especially as on most routes they have no
choice about which train company to use.
"Many commuters will have to fork out
hundreds of extra pounds for their next
annual season ticket,” he said.
TSSA general secretary Gerry Doherty
also described the rises as "outrageous".
"Rail companies are holding passengers
to ransom every year and the government
are allowing them to get away with it," he
said.
END RIP-OFF
FARES HIKES
Union warns that the latest round of rip-off rail-fare
increases will drive more people off trains and into
their cars
T
he squeeze on East Coast mainline rail
passengers will continue with a
vengeance after National Express took
over the franchise thanks to the
government’s dogmatic refusal to abandon
the failed franchise system.
As the transport privateer prepares to
take over the franchise that collapsed
under its previous operator, Sea
Containers, RMT found return flights to
the Caribbean cheaper than a standard
open return from London to Inverness.
An open standard return to Inverness
from King’s Cross could already cost you
£298, but you could fly out to Antigua for
£2 less, even including fuel and passenger
duty.
Increases of more than two per cent
above inflation on unregulated fares every
year for eight years are also built into the
new East Coast franchise, under which the
Treasury hopes National Express will pay
more than £1.4 billion in premiums.
The union warned that it would resist
any attempt to make its members pay for
the ‘ludicrous’ franchise agreement with
their jobs, pay or conditions.
It said that GNER’s collapse under Sea
Containers jeopardised jobs and services
on one of our key spinal railways, but the
government is refusing to learn the lesson
that franchising won’t deliver the railway
required.
“The environment is crying out for a
rail network that is affordable and
encourages people out of their cars and
onto trains, but the new East Coast
franchise will deliver the opposite.
“The government has no incentive to
make rail fares fairer if they’re hoping for
a share of National Express’s spoils – and
if they’ve got their revenue sums wrong
they’ll be using even more public money
to shore the franchise up,” he said.
CARIBBEAN FLIGHTS NOW CHEAPER
THAN TRAIN TO INVERNESS