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As if strike chaos wasn’t enough... train fares set to soar 12 per cent

By Daniel Jones

RAIL passengers facing another chaotic week of strike action are set to be hit with a record 12 per cent increase in fares, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.

Strike action on nine networks held up tens of thousands of football fans, holidaymakers and festival-goers this weekend. Next week, commuters will be hit by strikes on Thursday and Saturday that will cripple the whole rail network. Meanwhile, campaigners have told The Mail on Sunday that annual season tickets will rise by as much as £1,000 next year unless Ministers end a decades-old method for calculating increases using an outdated measure of inflation.

The average rise each year is based on the previous July’s retail price index (RPI), which is due to be announced on Wednesday, and is expected to rise 0.1 percentage points to 11.9 per cent, according to research firm Capital Economics.

This means fares will be allowed to rise by 12 per cent – almost double the previous record increase in 2012. It will see commuters who travel in to London facing an average annual season ticket rise of £550, taking the amount they pay to £5,500. Season tickets for regional commuters would rise by an average £240 to take their fares above £2,000.

On specific routes, if the Government uses the RPI formula, the cost of a 12-month season ticket would go up by 11.9 per cent next year from Reading to London (increasing by £600 to £5,644); Colchester to London (up by £685 to £6,450); Runcorn into Liverpool (£212 more to £1,996); and from Bath to London (jumping by £1,083 to £10,192).

In Scotland, Ministers will also be free to hike fares on the newly nationalised ScotRail by the rate of inflation recorded in July.

An increase of 12 per cent would add more than £500 to an annual season ticket between Glasgow and Edinburgh.

Scottish Labour has demanded the SNP ‘rule out a rip-off rise’ after the 3.8 per cent hike in ScotRail fares earlier this year. The party’s transport spokesman Neil Bibby said: ‘The last thing Scotland’s long-suffering rail passengers need is recordbreaking fare hikes.’

Paul Tuohy, of the Campaign for Better Transport, said: ‘Large numbers of commuters could be priced off trains altogether. We urgently need a fares freeze for 2023.’

He urged Ministers to base future rail ticket increases on the Consumer Prices Index (CPI), used to calculate rises to benefits and the state pension. CPI tends to be lower – for example, in June it was 2.4 percentage points below RPI.

Avanti West Coast, Southeastern, CrossCountry, London Northwestern Railway and West Midlands Railway ran no services at all yesterday, with limited services on other operators.

London Euston and Birmingham New Street were shut yesterday as members of the train drivers’ union Aslef held a strike amid protracted pay negotiations with rail companies and Ministers.

Aslef general secretary Mick Whelan, who was joined at a picket line outside Willesden Junction station in North-West London yesterday by Labour MPs Dawn Butler and Barry Gardiner, said: ‘We don’t want to go on strike – strikes are always a last resort – but the companies and the Government have forced our hand.’

The RMT and TSSA unions, representing 40,000 other railway workers, are planning more strikes this week, calling for better working conditions, job security and more pay.

Last night, the Department for Transport said Ministers would meet this week to discuss cutting the link between the July figure for RPI and rail fare rises.

‘Commuters may be priced off trains altogether’

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2022-08-14T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-08-14T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://mailonline.pressreader.com/article/281852942351481

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