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Friday, November 21, 2008, 10:24
Changes will take effect from January 2, and ATOC said the increased revenue will help pay for major investment 'to improve the railways and deliver better value for taxpayers' in line with government policy to reduce subsidy to the railway by 40% between 2006/07 and 2013/14.
First Great Western will increase regulated fares, such as long-distance and season tickets, by six per cent while other fares will go up by an average of 6.6 per cent.
South West Train fares will go up by six and 7.2 per cent. and Virgin Train Fares will go up by six and seven per cent.
The highest annual increase is for unregulated fares on CrossCountry services which will rise in January by an average of 11%.
Other companies with big unregulated-fare increases are First Capital Connect (up an average of 9%), Chiltern (up 7.5%), National Express East Coast (up 7.4%) and South West Trains (up 7.2%).
Travellers on Southeastern – whose trains run into London from Kent and Sussex - will have to fork out for regulated fare increases averaging 8% from January.
This is due to Southeastern’s regulated fare formula being RPI plus 3% – with the higher figure necessary to pay for new high-speed domestic services in Kent due to be introduced next year.
In contrast, London Midland has frozen its unregulated fares which, in effect, will go down 5%.
Anthony Smith, chief executive of customer watchdog Passenger Focus, said: “No fare rises are welcome in the current economic climate. These rises hark back to a time of high inflation and spiralling energy costs.
The economy is different now, but the seemingly unstoppable rail-price express ploughs on.
“Some train companies deserve credit for limiting some unregulated rises. However, rises way above inflation are unjustified and unfair. These average fares will no doubt mask some very steep rises on particular routes. We will study the real impact as we unearth the details in the next few days.”
Passenger Focus added that linking fares to inflation had served passengers relatively well in calmer times, but the Government now needed to take a fresh look at consumer protection and fares.
Mr Smith went on: “We also need to look closely at establishing a fairer link between fares, investment and satisfactory performance. We cannot simply go on dumping costs on to the passenger in this way.”
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