Train fares are going up by nearly 5 per cent from today (Sunday 3 March) even though cancellations are at among the highest levels for 10 years.
Public transport campaigners said that passengers were being “punished” and would be angry about the price increases.
The equivalent of 3.9 per cent of services in England and Wales were cancelled in the year to Saturday 3 February, according to an analysis of Office of Rail and Road (ORR) figures by the PA news agency.
That is narrowly below the worst performance of 4.1 per cent in records dating back to 2014.
Reliability has been affected by several factors in recent months, including strikes, infrastructure faults and severe weather.
But despite this, an annual season ticket from Brighton to London is going up by £275 from £5,616 to £5,891.
Chris Page, who chairs the pressure group Railfuture, said: “Why are rail passengers being punished year after year with inflation-busting fare rises?
“No matter that there’s a ‘cost of living crisis’, no matter that we’re facing a climate emergency, the government seems more determined than ever to price us off the railway and on to the roads.”
Labour’s Shadow Transport Secretary Louise Haigh said: “This fare rise will be tough for passengers to stomach given the shocking state of rail services up and down the country.
“Since coming to power in 2010 the Tories have hiked fares by almost twice as much as wages and now passengers are being asked to pay more for less.”
Campaign for Better Transport campaigns manager Michael Solomon Williams said: “At a time when we urgently need to encourage people to take the train, the public will rightly be angry to discover that it has just become even more expensive to do so.
“We know that people will decide to drive or fly if the train is too expensive so this is bad news for our personal finances, the wider economy and the environment.”
Rail Minister Huw Merriman said last month that the government had tried to “split the balance between the UK taxpayer and the fare payer” in relation to fare rises which he described as being “well below inflation”.
ORR figures show that the Westminster administration provided £4.4 billion of funding to train operators in Britain in the year to the end of March 2023.
The Retail Prices Index measure of inflation, which is traditionally used to determine annual fare rises, was 9 per cent last July.
The Consumer Prices Index, which is a more commonly used inflation figure, was 6.8 per cent in July 2023 but fell to 4 per cent in January.
The UK and Welsh governments set the cap for rises in regulated fares at 4.9 per cent.
These include season tickets on most commuter journeys, some off-peak return tickets on long-distance routes and flexible tickets for travel around major cities.
Train operators set unregulated fares such as advance singles although their decisions are heavily influenced by the government because of contracts introduced because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Rises in these fares are expected to be similar to those for regulated fares.
Same every year. High fares and awful service.
I try to avoid the train these days.
Yes it is now the transport of last resort.
Renationalise the railways.
Most people rarely use trains. Why should the taxpayer take on the burden? Train operators run on paper thin profit margins – what makes you think that public ownership will result in cheaper tickets and better services? Where does the money come from?
I agree. I am afraid the well paid highly unionised workforce along with an aging underinvested infrastructure has doomed the rail industry in the UK. It should not be taken on by the taxpayer.
Chris,
New rolling stock has been added to the fleet taking away most of the older trains. New electronics have been installed across the network and continues to be re-newed/upgraded. Why do you think there’s been engineering works ongoing for decades.
You are aware the tax payer already fund the railways under contracts. So why continue to feed the pockets of railway owners.
They do not run on paper thin profit margins, just look at the profit Go-Ahead had last year.
Re-nationalisation will take away the huge profits they make and will go back into the public purse not the pockets of share holders.
Operator dividends were 0.8% of turnover in the year ending March 2023. You can find these figures here: https://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/media/algdbizg/rail-industry-finance-uk-statistical-release-202223.pdf#page21
Very interesting stats that confirm my statement that we, the tax payer already fund the railways.
£11.7 billion of franchised train operator expenditure.
Go ahead recorded a huge profit margin of 46million on its trains in the first six months of trading 2022 and still receives subsides as does it 56m profit making bus companies.
I have never agreed with any form of government subsidies- perhaps time to end them ?
Fuel duty has not risen since 2011
Rail fairs have risen by what 50%??
Usual nonsense, Jeremy hunt pushing his peas around the plate trying to make it look like he knows how to be a chancellor. The reason the railways cost so much to run is because people are simply not using it anymore. It’s cheaper to drive a car that pollutes.
Add to that the unions who frankly take the mic – £65k to drive a train, laughable. They should all be automated anyway by now.
The joke is, when they do bother to spend money on the railway it gets well and truly blown. HS2 farse. £60billion to go from London to Birmingham. For that they could have upgraded the entire east coast mainline to 6 tracks which would make it possible to run trains at the speeds that line is built for
Maintenance work is expensive because everyone is getting paid a small fortune. Every worker needs a PTS licence (retarded 4 day course that tells you not to walk on the railway lines) and you can only do that course if your already employed by the railway… So that means a shortage of skilled workers, so the pay lol it’s a gravy train.
Any job you can think of, if it’s on the railway add £10k to the salary.
Hi, I’m thinking of moving to Brighton and would need to commute to London 3 days per week. How reliable do commuters find the service over the last year or so? I’m currently on a Thameslink and Southern line closer to London, and it seems to me that more trains run as planned recently, (of course there are some days when it goes wrong,) but is this the case in Brighton too, or is it an unreliable commuting option?
Any help appreciated!