HAPPY NEW FARE

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: february 2014 :: RMTnews 8 Rail campaigners gave a new- year message warning that British commuters could be spending over three times more of their salary on rail travel than passengers on publicly- owned railways in Europe. The TUC’s and rail union Action for Rail (AfR) campaign has compared average earnings with season tickets covering similar commuter routes across Europe. Taking into account fare increases, the analysis gives the example of a worker on an average salary who is now spending nearly 14 per cent of their monthly wages on a £299 monthly season ticket from St Albans to London St Pancras. However, over workers making similar journeys in Germany and France spend around four per cent of their salary on train fares, in Spain three per cent and in Italy just one per cent. The AfR analysis comes at a time when rail campaigners and MPs are calling for a rethink over how Britiain’s railways are run. More than 50 Labour, Liberal Democrat, Green and SNP MPs have now signed a parliamentary motion calling for the re-nationalisation of the UK’s railways, tabled earlier this year. Yet the European Union has unveiled proposals for a fourth rail package demanding the further break-up of national rail networks and hand the entire industry over to the private sector along the lines already carried out in Britain. Research by campaign group Transport for Quality of Life (TFQL) revealed that extra costs of over £1 billion per year are being incurred through a combination of debt write-offs, dividend payments to private investors and various administrative and legal costs. It estimates that fare cuts of up to 18 per cent could be achieved if these costs were eliminated by bringing services back within a nationally- integrated railway under public ownership. While the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement said that the government was sympathetic to calls for an end to inflation- busting fare rises, campaigners believe UK rail fares will continue to exceed ticket prices of state-run European services as long as privatisation remains in place. Regulated rail fares will rise between 3.1 and 5.1 per cent– more than four times faster than average wage increases – adding extra misery to the squeeze on living standards, says AfR. RMT general secretary Bob Crow said that 2014 was set to be another year of racketeering and greed on Britain’s privatised railways. “Passengers will continue to pay the highest fares in Europe to travel on creaking, overcrowded trains where raw sewage is dumped on the tracks because the private operators will not stump up for tanks and the staff to empty them. “That is a sickening indictment on our privatised railways as we head into the New Year. “The only solution – and one that’s opposed by all our main political parties – is total renationalisation and the return of our railways to public ownership and control," he said. TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady said that rail passengers and taxpayers were being poorly served by a privatised rail service that had failed to deliver any of the efficiency, investment and cost savings that privatisation cheerleaders promised. Campaigners reveal that privatised rail services in Britain charge some of the highest fares in Europe HAPPY NEW FARE?