UNFARE!

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: september 2012 :: RMTnews 4 Rail unions, transport campaigners and passengers held protests across the country last month against job cuts and huge fare rises agreed by the government. The ConDems gave the green light train operating companies to increase rail fares by three per cent more than RPI inflation, meaning large price hikes on most rush hour travel, season tickets and off-peak fares. The government has also given TOCs the power to increase some fares by even more, allowing operators to charge passengers up to 11 per cent more for train travel from January 2013. The government’s Rail Command Paper has set out proposals for TOCs to shed thousands of station staff, guards, catering staff and ticket offices to slash costs. The government is asking TOCs and Network Rail to implement cost- cutting proposals in Sir Roy McNulty’s Rail Value for Money Study that could put up to 20,000 jobs at risk in the rail industry. In a test case, train operator London Midland has submitted proposals for closures and reductions in operating hours of more than 80 ticket offices on its network, leaving many stations devoid of staff. Both unions and campaigners fear that the Secretary of State for Transport Justine Greening may give the green light to these proposals shortly. Women’s Institute chair Ruth Bond warned that cutting the number of staff at rail stations and on trains could put female passengers at greater risk of attack and harassment. Writing jointly with TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady, she told Justine Greening that large-scale job cuts would leaving trains without conductors and ticket offices empty, making “train travel a dangerous and daunting option for many passengers”. In addition to causing some of the highest rail fares in Europe, privatisation has doubled the taxpayer subsidy to the rail industry. In its report Rebuilding Rail, Transport for Quality of Life shows that more than £1bn per year is now incurred in extra costs as a result of the fragmentation, transaction costs, leakages through profits and dividend payments and other on-costs resulting from rail privatisation. On the day of the publication of the RPI inflation figure that will be used to calculate rail fare increases from January next year, Action for Rail, Bring Back British Rail, Campaign for Better Transport and Climate Rush took in a national day of action including demonstrations at Waterloo Station in London and leafleting and protests at over 40 stations around the country. RMT general secretary Bob Crow warned that passengers will be angry when they find out the full extent of the inflation-busting fare increases imposed on them by government diktat. “The idea that this extra money will be invested in the railways is a sick joke, it will simply be trousered by the greedy train operators, same as it always has been since privatisation. “The case for renationalising our railways, and throwing the rip-off merchants off the tracks, is now overwhelming. “The public is sick and tired of being charged through the nose to travel on creaking, overcrowded trains while the rail companies are robbing them blind. “The campaign to Bring Back British Rail (BBBR) is an idea whose time has come,” he said. BBBR spokeswoman Ellie Harrison said that people were angry and frustrated with the railway system in this country since it was dismantled and sold off in the 1990s, and the latest extortionate train fare rises would only make this situation worse. “We need a radical rethink of the way our railways are run so that passengers can, once again, take priority over profits,” she said. UNFARE! Massive rail fare hikes of up to 11 per cent and cuts to railway staff and services spark protests