Brighton commuters could find themselves paying £664 a year more for an annual season ticket following the transfer of the Thameslink franchise on Sunday.
The new Govia-owned franchise, Thameslink, Southern and Great Northern (TSGN), will also incorporate Southern and Gatwick Express services from July next year.
The Labour Party received confirmation this week that one of the conditions of the merger is the phasing out of cheaper Thameslink fares – which will add £644 a year to season tickets and rises of up to 74% on day tickets for some routes.
Labour’s Brighton Kemptown parliamentary candidate Nancy Platts said: “At the moment people have a choice and can save money by using the cheaper fares, the decision to phase out those fares will come as a nasty shock to many who can’t afford the more expensive tickets.
“The Tories and Lib Dems should come clean and tell local people when these fare rises will hit them. People won’t be fooled by what the government says on fares. They learned long ago you simply can’t trust the Tories with the railways.”
Mary Creagh MP, Labour’s Secretary of State for Transport, said: “Labour’s plan for the railways would tackle the cost-of-living crisis and drive the biggest reform of the railways since privatisation. Labour will cap rail fares, legislate for a public sector operator, devolve the running of regional and local services and deliver a railway which puts passengers first, not profits.”
The Go Ahead Group, which part-owns Govia, said that the new fare levels had not yet been decided and would be decided by the government.
A spokeswoman said: “We are running the new franchise on a management basis, which means that all income from fares goes to the Government rather than to the company. As such it is up to the Department for Transport to set the fares.
“It will be up to them to decide how fast this will happen and set the fare levels, but it does mean that the Thameslink-only fares will increase at a higher rate than the Southern ones in order for them to eventually equalise.
“The rate at which the fares are ‘harmonised’ is yet to be determined by the DfT.”
Labour’s calculation of fare increases
Season Tickets
· EAST SUSSEX: Brighton to London rises from £3,640 to £4,304 – up £664 (18%)
Day Tickets
· EAST SUSSEX: Brighton to London off-peak day return rises from £16.40 to £28.50 – up £12.10 (74%)
· LONDON: East Croydon to Brighton off-peak day return rises from £14.30 to £19.10 – up £4.80 (34%)
Marvellous! I’m so happy!
This will be an absolute disaster for the many people (like me) who travel regularly to London off-peak, but don’t go up every day.
When the franchise merger was first mooted I told anyone who would listen that this would be the result. I now think that it was probably one of the drivers of the merger – to screw some more money out of the travelling public.