Rail passengers across the UK are facing higher fares as average price increases of 2.3% were introduced on the first weekday of the new year. The rise applies to both regulated fares, including season tickets, and unregulated fares such as off-peak tickets.
Campaigners described the increase as a "kick in the teeth" for passengers after months of widespread strike disruption. The announcement came as a strike by conductors on Southern Rail entered its third day, part of a long-running row over the role of guards on new trains. The RMT union began the 72-hour walkout on New Year's Eve, with another strike planned for 9 January.
Even accounting for inflation, rail fares have risen by around 25% since the mid-1990s, as successive governments have shifted the proportion of rail costs paid by passengers. This has meant that taxpayers who do not use trains, the majority of the population, are paying less towards their operation. Ironically, the original purpose of regulating around half of fares was to protect passengers from large price increases imposed by operators, but ministers have often used the mechanism to raise fares.
Bruce Williamson of the campaign group Railfuture said: "With the chaos on Southern, lacklustre performance in Scotland and stalled electrification on the Great Western main line, passengers are going to wonder what they are getting for their increased ticket price." Lianna Etkind of the Campaign for Better Transport added: "Today's fare rises are another kick in the teeth for long-suffering rail passengers. Many experienced a less frequent and more overcrowded service last year, and now they are required to pay more for the same this year."
The government uses the previous July's Retail Prices Index (RPI) measure of inflation, which was 1.9%, to determine increases in regulated fares. Train operators set prices for other tickets but are bound by competition rules. According to the Rail Delivery Group (RDG), which represents train operators, around 97p in every pound paid by passengers goes back into running and improving services. RDG chief executive Paul Plummer said: "Nobody wants to pay more to travel to work and at the moment in some places people aren't getting the service they are paying for. However, increases to season tickets are set by government. Money from fares is helping to sustain investment in the longer, newer trains and more punctual journeys that passengers want."
Transport Secretary Chris Grayling said the government has "always fairly balanced" the cost of modernising the railways between the taxpayer and the passenger. But shadow transport secretary Andy McDonald argued that passengers are repeatedly told higher fares are necessary to fund investment, adding: "The truth is that our heavily fragmented railways mean that it takes years longer and costs much more than it should to deliver basic improvements."
