Rail Fares Going Up Again

[Zaune]

The Guardian

Campaigners are protesting at railway stations across the country as it was confirmed rail fares in England would rise by an average 4.1% in January – and some could rise by more than 9%.

The rise will add around £200 to the cost of many commuters' season tickets.

Under government policy to make passengers shoulder substantially more of the cost of the railway than taxpayers, regulated fares – off-peak intercity tickets and season tickets – are to rise by 1% above inflation. The measure is fixed by July's RPI figure, which was announced on Tuesday morning as 3.1%.

Train operators are allowed to raise some fares by an additional 5%, so long as the average remains under the cap. That means some fares could rise by as much as 9.1%.

Last year commuters in Kent were among the hardest hit as fares rose beyond the RPI+1% cap, lifting many season tickets to £5,820 for travel on high-speed services into London. Tuesday's inflation figures mean they face a likely rise of £238 and potentially as much as £519.

The Trades Union Congress (TUC) and the Action for Rail campaign group are staging demonstrations at almost 50 stations, warning that the cost of train travel will have leapt by 40% in six years by January, far outstripping the rise in wages.

The transport secretary, Patrick McLoughlin, told the BBC the government was investing heavily in the railways. He said: "Nobody likes to see rail fares go up. Running the railways is a very expensive business. The taxpayer overall is contributing a lot and I am afraid that the passenger has to make his contribution."

However, Labour said ministerial incompetence during the rail franchising fiasco had wasted more money than was being raised through increased ticket prices.

Maria Eagle, the shadow transport secretary, said: "David Cameron claims to want to end the era of above-inflation fare rises, yet we now know that he could have done so if it wasn't for the appalling deal secured by his transport ministers when they negotiated rail franchise extensions."

The TUC general secretary, Frances O'Grady, said: "Every year hard-pressed rail commuters have to hand over an ever greater share of their earnings just to get to and from work. Wage-busting fare rises are not even going on much-needed service improvements either. Instead, passenger and public subsidies are lining the pockets of the shareholders of private rail companies."

However, Michael Roberts, chief executive of the Association of Train Operating Companies, said: "Government determines how the average season ticket price rise is set each year. Since 2004, it has been government policy to allow regulated fares to rise above inflation in order to support investment in more trains, better stations and faster services."

Stephen Joseph of the Campaign for Better Transport said that commuting was now the biggest expense, ahead of food and housing, for many workers. He said: "One of the surest ways of stamping on any green shoots of recovery is to price people off the trains and out of the jobs market. For the sake of the economy we should end above inflation fares increases now and start planning for fare reductions."

The TSSA union protested outside the Department for Transport (DfT) in London against rail minister Norman Baker, saying that the Liberal Democrats had "betrayed rail users just like they did students". It said that rail fares had shot up under the coalition despite the party's manifesto pledges to reduce the rises.

A DfT spokesman said: "The government is investing record amounts into our railways, which will help deliver economic growth, improve performance and significantly boost passenger capacity. However, we also recognise it is tough for passengers. That is why we are already limiting these rises by capping the average regulated fares increase at 1% in real terms and will be announcing further measures to ensure greater fairness on fares for passengers later this year."

The government's promised rail fares and ticketing review has now been delayed until the autumn.

Rail fares in Scotland will be pegged to inflation only. Fare rises in Wales have yet to be confirmed.

The exact fares for each route will be published by train companies later this year, and the rises will come into effect on 2 January 2014.

Posted without comment, because nobody wants to read the word "fuck" repeated several hundred times.

[Borgholio]

Translated to nearly $8000 per year for fucking train tickets? What the fucking hell?

[Zaune]

Actually, I think that might be one of the cheaper examples. It's three times as expensive where I am, probably because the line isn't electrified. It would be pretty typical of the British government to turn fuel duty into a defacto environmental impact tax but forget to give the bus and train companies an exemption...

[Lagmonster]

8 grand a year for train commuting? I seem to recall inter-city train commuters in and out of Toronto telling me they paid less than half that.

Exactly how many blowjobs and three-course dinners do you get on British trains these days?

[Zaune]

Oh yeah, that reminds me. Did I mention that on my local rail service's trains, the coffee is £2 a cup, and instant?

EDIT: And not the unspectacular but pleasant enough instant that I spent months trying to find in Canada, either. It's only a small step up from roadside burger van coffee.

[Borgholio]

What makes British rail so expensive? A full year of travel on Southern CA Metrolink from Lancaster to Burbank (as an extreme distance example of 120+ miles round trip) is just about $4000. More typical trips of 50 miles round trip (Santa Clarita to Burbank) is $2000.

[PeZook]

8 grand a year for train commuting? I seem to recall inter-city train commuters in and out of Toronto telling me they paid less than half that.

Exactly how many blowjobs and three-course dinners do you get on British trains these days?

Jesus...when adjusted for PPP, I pay about 1/2 of that in gas, insurance and maintenance while commuting by car

[Dr. Trainwreck]

They are "subtly" trying to get you to switch to some other form of transit, aren't they?

[Zaune]

Doubt it. Do you know how much a full tank of petrol or diesel costs in this country?

[Soontir C'boath]

Distance between Kent and London is about 57 miles. If one were to take Amtrak from New York City to Bridgeport, CT which is about 53 miles, a monthly unlimited ride pass is $756, or as converted 5871 pounds per year and takes about 1 hour and 12 minutes. So apparently the epitome of private rail is just as expensive as what is considered a dilapidated and overpriced government railroad.

[Sinewmire]

What makes British rail so expensive?

If I understand correctly, it's the usual problem with British semi-public institutions. Both New Labour and the Tories have a massive hard-on for privatisation. As such, they semi-privatise even the stuff that they don't dare actually privatise, hence we get stuff like the current rail system, where Private Enterprise get to own the profitable stuff and the taxpayter foots the bill for maintenance and suchlike.

The profit vanishes into the greedy maw of shareholders, the losses are paid for in rail ticket price hikes.

If I recall the previous director of Network Rail (or whatever it was called) was able to buy a castle on the proceeds.

[Hillary]

What makes British rail so expensive?

A combination of private companies needing to earn profits and major ungrades to the infrastructure, due to under-investment over a number of decades.

Commuters are held to ransom, particularly in London, as there's no other realistic method of getting to work. For leisure travel, it is possible to get fairly cheap tickets if you book far enough in advance.

[salm]

What makes British rail so expensive? A full year of travel on Southern CA Metrolink from Lancaster to Burbank (as an extreme distance example of 120+ miles round trip) is just about $4000. More typical trips of 50 miles round trip (Santa Clarita to Burbank) is $2000.

Heh, for that level of money (4K€) I can get a one year flat rate ticket on the complete German railway system including inner city metropolitan subways and busses. And I thought that was expensive.

[Simon_Jester]

To be fair, a rail commuter who travels every day on a 120-mile round trip will use up... what, something like 30000 passenger-miles.

The typical customer for a "one year flat rate ticket on the complete German railway system" might actually not be using up any more passenger-miles, and therefore not be noticeably more expensive from the system's perspective.

[wautd]

My one time experience with the British rail system: Stupid expensive and two 20 minute delays on the same day. Oh, and did I already say it was stupid expensive?

[Vendetta]

They are "subtly" trying to get you to switch to some other form of transit, aren't they?

Shit no, they're just grasping cunts squeezing a captive audience for all they can get.

See, part of the problem is that although they sold off the rail network to private operators, there's no fare competition even if there are multiple operators on the same route, the fare always goes to the same place (the operator who runs the originating station). Therefore there's no incentive for fares to go in any direction other than upwards, there's also no incentive to compete on quality of service, once the station operator has your money they literally give zero fucks whose actual train you catch, so they don't have to care about the quality or comfort of their rolling stock either.

And it's only a series of high profile disasters including loss of life that made them give half a shit about the infrastructure (and that meant basically renationalising the actual infrastructure because it turned out a private operator wasn't able to run it safely because their incentive was to cut costs to increase profits)

So what we get is a massively overpriced rail network with shit trains that are frequently late (commute for a week and you are all but guaranteed at least one delay, someone I work with who still commutes by train managed to take three and a half hours for a 40 mile journey this weekend).

[Zaune]

The delays wouldn't be half so bad if we weren't trying to fit a quart into a pint pot infrastructure-wise; if one train gets held up by as little as fifteen minutes, the knock-on effect lasts for most of the rest of the day. And laying on extra trains for a surge in demand, like the old football specials? Forget it.

[Vendetta]

They usually literally can't put extra trains on the tracks because they're running up against the safety limits of the infrastructure (specified in terms of minutes of clear track between trains). There's simply no safe track room for extra trains to go.

That's also why they can't enlarge the actual trains (because many platforms aren't long enough, so they could only embark/debark from two or four carriages, which takes longer for longer trains as people have to fuck about moving to the door open carriages, so making bigger trains might actually decrease network capacity because it increases stoppage times.

[Dartzap]

They have just coughed up a few million quid for a few thousand new carriages for crossrail and other projects. And they are electrifying some thousand odd miles of line (none past Exeter though, dont want to scare the Cornish with the magical power of leccy). Which should in theory lead to cascades. Should appear sometime next millennia, but its the thought that counts!

[Starglider]

Exactly how many blowjobs and three-course dinners do you get on British trains these days?

You may, if you are lucky, get a seat. Usually one which makes budget airline economy class look generously proportioned.

Doubt it. Do you know how much a full tank of petrol or diesel costs in this country?

Twice as much as a full tank of LPG.

Commuters are held to ransom, particularly in London, as there's no other realistic method of getting to work.

Due to refusal to complete the original London motorway plans, this is sadly true. I would always prefer to drive anywhere else in the country, even if fares were a quarter what they are now.

[Admiral Valdemar]

My girlfriend will only ever visit me travelling first class now, it's so bad otherwise in the standard cabins. And this is just from W, Yorkshire to Cambridgeshire, about two hours or so on the main East Coast line. Myself, I only ever drive now. I used to take the train to visit family back home, but it took over five hours to do 300 km and cost about £70 return. It costs me about £50 for a full tank of petrol, which is over two trips home and takes me about three hours normally via the M6.

[Eternal_Freedom]

Standard class on First Great Western is tolerable (I still go first class though), but I find it necessary to go first class all the time on Greater Anglia since a) the standard coaches are bloody awful and b) I physically can't fit my legs behind the seats in front.

Fortunately being a recently-graduated student I still have my Young Persons railcard so it's 1/3rd cheaper and I can travel at fixed times booked well in advance which saves a shitload.

[Vendetta]

Protip: travelling in first so that you don't have to care how shitty the trains are doesn't actually work for most people on their daily commute.

[Eternal_Freedom]

Protip: travelling in first so that you don't have to care how shitty the trains are doesn't actually work for most people on their daily commute.

Very true, but thanks to eyesight I can't drive so train travel is all I've got. So far I'm only going intercity but no doubt I'll wind up commuting eventually.

[Irbis]

See, part of the problem is that although they sold off the rail network to private operators, there's no fare competition even if there are multiple operators on the same route, the fare always goes to the same place (the operator who runs the originating station). Therefore there's no incentive for fares to go in any direction other than upwards, there's also no incentive to compete on quality of service, once the station operator has your money they literally give zero fucks whose actual train you catch, so they don't have to care about the quality or comfort of their rolling stock either.

And it's only a series of high profile disasters including loss of life that made them give half a shit about the infrastructure (and that meant basically renationalising the actual infrastructure because it turned out a private operator wasn't able to run it safely because their incentive was to cut costs to increase profits)

So what we get is a massively overpriced rail network with shit trains that are frequently late (commute for a week and you are all but guaranteed at least one delay, someone I work with who still commutes by train managed to take three and a half hours for a 40 mile journey this weekend).

All of this, plus that imbecile Thatcher also privatized public bus operators, making most lines be promptly cancelled by their new owners and only profitable ones retained. This means little to no competition from bust transport on most lines, either, no stupid commie things like reduced fares for students, disabled or elderly (at least in Scotland, where I had to use half a dozen bus lines and train routes).

In most of UK, overpriced bus/train is the only way to go unless you happen to have a car, making the fares go up nicely. Also, some really nice tourist destinations I wanted to visit had no bus/train route whatsoever, making local economies lose out on all but most wealthy tourists. But hey, City demands, so who cares, London is all that matters and they have subway anyway

Oh, and they are about to do the same thing to Royal Mail. And people wonder why Scotland wants to get the fuck out of UK while they still can.