UK RAIL FARE RIP-OFF BREAKS HEARTS

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: march 2013 :: RMTnews 7 N ew RMT research has found that French, Italian and Spanish lovers using high speed rail city breaks will pay 245 per cent less in rail fares than their British counterparts. Figures also show that whilst here there has been a 20 per cent increase in cost of using high speed rail (London to Paris) in the last three years, the cost of using of publicly owned European high speed rail is falling and by up to 37 per cent in some instances. The research found that even when couples book in advance the cost of Britain’s privatised railway on Valentine’s Day means it’s cheaper for couples to fly instead to the Canary Islands, Barcelona or Bilbao than to use the train for a getaway to the Lake District, Edinburgh or the West Country. The report goes on to show that when measured by cost per kilometre, it is eight times cheaper for a couple to fly London to New York than it is to get the train to Edinburgh or the Scottish Highlands. RMT general secretary Bob Crow called once again for the fragments of Britain’s railways to be bonded back together in one publicly-owned, publicly-run service freed from the exploitation that two decades of privatisation has brought to the network. T ube drivers on the Jubilee Line, working out of the Stratford and Greenwich depots, are being balloted for industrial action in a dispute over bullying of staff through the misuse of procedures and an appalling decline in the standard of working conditions. In a letter to London Underground setting out the reasons for the dispute, including the unfair and disproportionate treatment of drivers in disciplinaries, poor facilities, the removal and threatened removal of some benefits and a severe lack of support from managers for staff. RMT general secretary Bob Crow said that the union would not sit back and allow the wilful misuse of procedures on any part of the tube network as a means of bullying and intimidating members. “That is exactly what is happening to drivers working out of Greenwich and Stratford on the Jubilee Line and we are demanding that the practice be called to an immediate halt. “Our members are also sick of the gradual decline in working conditions and facilities which have been allowed to degenerate into a disgusting state and which appears to be another petty and vindictive way of sniping at union members on the Jubilee Line,” he said. EUROPEAN HIGH SPEED RAIL VALENTINE’S DAY PRICE COMPARISON Route Distance Single Cost Percentage % since (km) ticket £/km difference 2010 (£) between change London to Paris £/km and other journeys £/km (%) London to Paris 341 130 0.38 0 +22.6 Paris to Lyon 395 59.50 0.15 153 -1.6% Milan to Rome 476 72 0.15 153 -13.7% Madrid to Seville 390 46 0.11 245 -37% Source: Rail Europe (www.raileurope.co.uk). Ticket Price was calculated on the price of a morning single journey tick et for 1 adult booked one week in advance (queried on 0 7/02/2013 for a journey planned for 14/02/2013). A single journey from London to P aris is 22percent more expensive than it was three years ago, and that the cost of a single fare on every other comparator route has fallen in that time. UK RAIL FARE RIP-OFF BREAKS HEARTS JUBILEE LINE TUBE DRIVERS BALLOTED OVER BULLYING AND WORKING CONDITIONS