The Government has confirmed that rail fares are to rise by around 6.2 per cent next year.
Michael Roberts, chief executive of the Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC), said:
The government decides the average increase of commuter ticket prices and other regulated fares which train companies will be required to introduce in January 2013.
It has been government policy during the past eight years for passengers to pay a larger share of the cost of operating the railways and to focus taxpayers’ money on investing in longer term improvements to the network. Any flexibility train companies have within the rules is to maximise revenue for the government.
ASLEF general secretary Mick Whelan said:
Rail workers and the travelling public are united in this campaign. Commuters, environmentalists, businessmen, holidaymakers – even motorists! – all have a vested interest in an affordable, accessible and reliable rail service.
RMT general secretary Bob Crow said:
Passengers will be rightly 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 extortionists and 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 is an idea whose time has come.
TSSA general secretary Manuel Cortes said:
Justine Greening’s cynical predecessor Philip Hammond famously said that rail is now a rich man’s toy. She seems determined to turn that quote into firm reality during her time at the DfT.
Bring Back British Rail spokesperson Ellie Harrison said:
It’s obvious that people are angry and frustrated with the railway system in this country since it was dismantled and sold off in the 1990s, and these extortionate train fare rises will 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.
Climate Rush spokesperson Siobhan Grimes said:
Affordable rail fares are essential in getting more people using trains and out of cars and planes. Travelling by train helps to tackle the toxic levels of air pollution in cities throughout the UK and reduces our carbon emissions too. Instead of pricing commuters off the railways, we must make green transport choices possible.
Maybe if the rail unions didn’t insist on above inflation pay raises every year (even in years when many other people have had pay freezes, pay cuts and have lost their jobs) I could perhaps accept that they speak for rail passengers when such an announcement is made.
I hope the same attitude is taken to the increases in the total remuneration of board members and shareholder dividends.