UK commuters brace for 3.5% rail fare rise
Campaign group calls for freeze on prices after timetable chaos
Britain's long suffering commuters are bracing themselves for another large rise in rail fares, with a jump of 3.5% expected from January 2019.
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Despite a summer of cancellations and delays after a spectacularly botched timetable overhaul, passengers will still be expected to stump up hundreds of pounds extra just to get to work.
The precise increase will be announced on Wednesday with the publication of UK inflation figures. Forecasts for the Retail Prices Index measure of inflation, which is used to set fare rises, are for 3.5%.
The mayors of Greater Manchester and the Liverpool city region demanded a freeze in fares.
In a joint letter to Transport Secretary Chris Grayling, mayors Andy Burnham and Steve Rotherham said the anticipated rise would “add insult to injury” for beleaguered passengers.
“The rail industry has caused real misery for thousands of passengers across the north,” the duo said.
“Not only have people lost time at work or with their families, they have had to shell out for taxis, extra childcare and even hotel bills because of the continuing disruption.
“To ask these long-suffering passengers now to pay even more for a poor, unreliable service is to add insult to injury. A freeze in the current fares is the very least that passengers deserve.”
“As you know this crisis has caused real damage to the North – the current estimate is that at least £38m has been lost from the economy – and has led to many commuters turning their backs on using the train and seeking other means of getting around, often jumping into cars that add to the congestion and airm quality issues we already have.”
Campaigners have called for a fares freeze and the use of the Consumer Prices Index (CPI), to measure increases. CPI does not take into account the cost of mortgage payments and tends to be lower than RPI.
In May, an overhaul of rail timetables led to widespread rail disruption with Northern bringing in a temporary timetable that removed more than 100 trains a day, while Thameslink, Southern and Great Northern also introduced a reduced service.
Labour called on the government to freeze rail fares on the routes most severely affected by the timetable changes - Govia Thameslink, Arriva Rail North and First Transpennine Express as a "small gesture of goodwill" for passengers.
The Campaign for Better Transport also called on the government to freeze fares.
"Engineering works, new trains and planned electrification projects, which passengers were told justified last year’s fares increase, have still not been implemented and there is no indication of when they will be," the group said.
"All this means most passengers have seen services deteriorate this year and will not see any improvements for years to come, yet will still be asked to pay more next year. Add to this the thousands of passengers caught up in the timetable chaos who are still waiting for compensation and the fare rises seem likely to be resented even more than usual this year."
"Given the mess surrounding the new timetable, the lack of improvements and the failure to deliver compensation. the government cannot go on telling passengers that fare increases are justified," a spokesperson said.
Consumer group Which? said rail fares have increased by 40% since 2008 - more than one-and-a-half times higher than the rise in CPI inflation (26%) over the same period.