Rail fares up 50% in ten years

ruggedtoast

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/jan/02/rail-fare-structure-not-ideal

Campaigners claim that fares for season ticket holders have risen by as much as 50% in the past decade, making travelling to work by train an extravagance that growing numbers of people struggle to afford.

And the most expensive in Europe unsurprisingly. They say that £100 will get you just over 100 miles in England, 300 miles in Germany and 700 miles in Italy.

Meanwhile season tickets are becoming unaffordable for people needing to get into London to work, which is pretty much everyone not fortunate enough to have been able to buy a place before the last house price boom.

grizzly1911

Good,

Motoring costs have gone up more for those of us they don't have a choice.

If employers want to concentrate themselves in they SE they should pay the cost.

N1AK

ruggedtoast wrote: »

And the most expensive in Europe unsurprisingly. They say that £100 will get you just over 100 miles in England, 300 miles in Germany and 700 miles in Italy.

Meanwhile season tickets are becoming unaffordable for people needing to get into London to work, which is pretty much everyone not fortunate enough to have been able to buy a place before the last house price boom.

Not to defend UK rail prices but often the figures used to compare with other countries can be a little misleading. Rail travel in Italy really is very cheap but travel in both Germany and France is nowhere as cheap as you'd think it was based on the UK media. Also basing costs on distance is bound to make the UK look bad vs a country the size of Germany.

coastline

One commentator was saying today that they are only using a formula set out in 2004 by Labour...above inflation rises.
Of course the government could have abandoned this policy but continued using it...so the governments share of rail costs are heading for 25%.
Tory party did the same with the Council tax years ago where a 1% reduction in funding meant an even bigger rise on the local tax...as central government prvides 90% ?? of the bill.
Seems like all of this is part of the long term connection with direct to indirect taxation...

ruggedtoast

N1AK wrote: »

Not to defend UK rail prices but often the figures used to compare with other countries can be a little misleading. Rail travel in Italy really is very cheap but travel in both Germany and France is nowhere as cheap as you'd think it was based on the UK media. Also basing costs on distance is bound to make the UK look bad vs a country the size of Germany.

I've used the railways in a number of countries, the UK is poor value however you swing it. At best its expensive, at worst its expensive and unreliable.

The fact the French are now subsidising their own railway with profits made from extortionate fares paid by British travellers on London Midland just shows what a complete disaster privatisation has been for our railways.

N1AK

ruggedtoast wrote: »

I've used the railways in a number of countries, the UK is poor value however you swing it. At best its expensive, at worst its expensive and unreliable.

I've travelled in France, Germany twice and the Netherlands in the last twelve months all by train (a total of 15 rail journeys) and that simply isn't my observation. I hardly use the trains in the UK, and I don't work for a company involved in running them so it's not like I've got a reason to make them out to be better than they are.

In general there is less of a premium for commuter travel on the continent and it is these figures that are used to maximise the cost difference. Again this isn't a defence of UK pricing; I just wanted to inform people of a tendency by the press to give a misleading picture to make a story seem more shocking.

Turnbull2000

UK rail travel is still highly subsidised, so if anything, fairs are too low.

The_White_Horse

they need to sack most of the greedy drivers and staff. half the reason for the high fares are their astronomical wages and huge holiday allowances. the job could be performed by a trained monkey and should really be automated anyway. slash the staff and their salaries/pensions. that would be a decent start.

Gentile

I think train companies are currently concentrating on lining up the pockets of the employees and directors than providing a public transport service. Year after year inflation busting rises in fares are for the inflation busting wage increases, bonuses and pensions. The trains are decades old and the infrastructure is creaking. Hardly any investment into new technology.

grizzly1911

Trains rely on energy to move them.

Is there any relationship between the cost of electricity an diesel in these increases?

Like many privatised utilities the price rises are, in part, merely back door "taxation".

StevieJ

I read this in the Daily Mail (part of the news feed on my phone), strange to read the complaint about subsidies being removed (this was obviously started by the last Labour govt). I thought they and their readers didn't believe in subsidies?