UK Commuters Spend up to a Fifth of Their Wages on Rail Travel

All Aboard for 11% Fare Rises, Delays and Packed Trains as Commuters Spend up to a FIFTH of Their Wages on Rail Travel

• Campaigners urge people to tweet with #farefail hashtag
• Commuters prompted to contact the Treasury's switchboard
• People in the South East face paying £4,000 for a season ticket
• Manual workers in Birmingham spend 21% of their salary on commuting

January 3, 2012

Daily Mail - Commuters railed against inflation-busting fare rises yesterday, as millions returned to work amid train delays and crammed rush-hour conditions.

Hitting out at New Year price increases of up to 11 per cent, protesters handed out cards with a picture of David Cameron, Nick Clegg and George Osborne above the slogan:

‘Wanted for the Great Train Fares Robbery!’

Online, many more vented their fury over the prospect of higher fares for a poor service. One Twitter user wrote:

‘Paying more to stand on an hour-long trip outside the toilets. You’re off your trolley Osborne! Wake up!’

Another added:

‘I’m paying £18 more for my rail fare to travel on overcrowded, dirty and late trains. Sort it chancellor!’

A third said:

‘UK train service is appalling. Trains always delayed. No seats. We’re all fed up!’

UK COMMUTE IS 10 TIMES MORE EXPENSIVE THAN REST OF EUROPE

Rail passengers in Britain pay up to ten times more for their tickets than their European neighbours, figures have revealed.

Critics say consumers are being ‘ripped off’ by an alliance of greedy train companies and tax-hungry Treasury ministers while passengers on the Continent pay significantly less for their journeys.

A report by the Campaign for Better Transport shows British train passengers pay three-and-a-half times more than even the most expensive equivalent commuter journey of 21-24 miles highlighted on the other side of the Channel.

It says a 2011 annual season ticket for the journey from Woking to London, including Tube travel in the capital, costs £3,268. Yet a similar 22-mile trip from Velletri to Rome costs Italian season ticket holders just £336.17 – nearly a tenth of the price. In France, a season ticket for the 24-mile trip from Ballancourt-sur-Essonne to Paris costs £924.66 – a third of the UK fare.

Regulated fares, which include season tickets, have risen by an average of 6 per cent. However, some unlucky commuters are paying 10.6 per cent more for annual tickets than they did last January.

The Campaign for Better Transport pressure group joined the TSSA transport union yesterday to protest against the increases outside St Pancras station in London. In addition to the union’s cards, placards depicted the Prime Minister as the Fat Controller from Reverend W. Awdry’s Thomas The Tank Engine stories.

Passengers leaving nearby King’s Cross station faced disrupted journeys on top of higher prices.

Due to high winds, some London-to-Scotland trains were starting and finishing in Newcastle upon Tyne, while a series of signalling faults affected a number of rush-hour services on other lines.

Civil servant Craig Marshall, 47, of Northwood, North-West London, paid £129 for a one-way single ticket from King’s Cross to Edinburgh.

‘This is a lot more than I paid the last time I did this journey a few weeks ago, when I think it was something like £89,’ he said.

‘Passengers, once again, are paying for the failure of train companies.’

TSSA general secretary Manuel Cortes said:

‘The £4,000 annual season ticket is now commonplace in the South-East.

‘By 2015, the £5,000 annual season ticket will be as well, thanks to ministers insisting on inflation plus an extra 3 per cent on top of that in 2013 and 2014.’

CBT campaigner Sophie Allain warned that fare rises ‘are starting to affect the UK’s competitiveness’. She said:

‘If the Government is serious about promoting economic growth, it must look at reducing planned fare rises in 2013 and 2014 as part of a policy to cut fares and make public transport truly affordable.’

At Brighton station, more travellers met with delays due to signalling failures and weather conditions. Marketing executive John Cooper, 33, from Burgess Hill, West Sussex, said of the fare rises:

‘It’ s a rip-off.

There’s no noticeable improvement in the service and you are just forced to cough up the extra money every time.

‘I’ve had to cut back on going out and other non-essential things just so I can get into work every day. The companies have got us over a barrel.’