Coming closely after taxes, no consumer price increase angers people as much as the rise in train fares. There is a resignation about increases in petrol prices: the blame lies somewhere in the Middle East; global demand for oil seems insatiable and environmental concerns are a mitigating factor. But the recent sharp rise in rail fares, running in some cases at more than three times the rate of inflation, has stung commuters and long-distance passengers alike. It is all the more resented because it is arbitrary, often underhand and at its steepest on rail services that are among the country's worst - dirty, overcrowded and late. Little wonder, therefore, that passengers on the hapless First Great Western's routes have been staging fare strikes, or that government attempts to lure people from their cars are derided as a sham.

Public perceptions, however, can be misleading. The experience of rail passengers has been cruelly uneven. Since privatisation, rail fares on some lines have remained remarkably stable, while others have shot through the roof. So while those travelling from London to Southend find that many tickets cost the same now as in 1995, those travelling to the West Country have had to pay 145 per cent more for a standard single ticket. The big difference is between regulated and unregulated fares, especially between season tickets and those bought on the day of travel. This is because the Government, in allowing privatised operators to set their own fares, feared alienating a powerful group of voters, and protected season-ticket holders and those buying saver tickets. Indeed, for the first five years of privatisation, yearly rises were capped at 1 per cent below inflation - changing then to 1 per cent above it, still seen as an affordable increase.

As a result, rail companies have relentlessly pushed up the cost of walk-on fares, to raise money upfront in pre-bookings and encourage online purchases that are cheaper to process. And secondly they have started varying prices much like airlines, to fill empty seats in slack periods with cut-price tickets while raising the cost of business travel at peak times to stratospheric levels. This, combined with dozens of different special offers and incentives by train operators, means that there is now a bewildering array of fares. This leads to absurdities. It can be cheaper to buy a season ticket and use it only twice a week than to buy two returns; or to get off halfway through a journey and rebook a separate ticket; or to go beyond the intended station and then travel back again on another train.

What angers passengers is the failure, often deliberate, of ticket offices to offer the cheapest fare and the train companies' attempts to whittle away saver fares by lengthening peak periods or cutting back the seats available. This suspicion of stealth rises, like stealth taxes, is reinforced by the Government's trumpeting of its green credentials while quietly forcing train operators to raise fares as the condition of a new franchise.

What is needed is transparency. There is a real need to prevent monopoly operators offering a lousy service exploiting their passengers. Britain's railways are no longer really privatised; the train companies are. It is a hybrid, a Frankenstein's monster of a business. It needs to be reformed. In the meantime, the Office of Rail Regulation should take on an additional task and look at fair fares - for everyone.

See also:

Cost of a ticket on the worst-run trains races ahead as punctuality and overcrowding go off the rails

The Times: February 14, 2008
Ben Webster, Transport Correspondent

Britain’s worst-performing train company has imposed the highest fare increases of any operator since privatisation, more than doubling the price of open tickets, a study has found.

Since 1995 the average standard single fare of First Great Western has risen by 145 per cent, well above inflation over the period of 41 per cent.

Passengers have been subject to a postcode lottery on fares with some companies reducing the cost of rail travel in real terms while others have taken advantage of their local monopolies to impose a succession of above-inflation increases.

FGW consistently comes bottom of the punctuality table and the latest figures show that almost a fifth of its trains ran late last year. It also regularly fails to provide enough carriages. Last weekend more than 300 passengers had to squeeze into a two-carriage train from Oxford to London on a service scheduled to have eight carriages.

In January FGW raised fares for many passengers by 10 per cent, prompting a fares strike by passengers in the Bath and Bristol area. A standard open return from Exeter to London rose from £163 to £179.

The study, by fares analyst Barry Doe, found starkly different costs for each mile travelled in different parts of the country. South West Trains charges 30p a mile for standard open fares but FGW, National Express East Coast and Virgin charge 50-60p.

Virgin has raised standard fares by 135 per cent since privatisation and first class fares by 160 per cent.

By contrast most types of fare at Great Northern, now part of First Capital Connect, are slightly cheaper than they were in 1995.

The study also shows that occasional rail users have borne the brunt of fare rises while season ticket holders have been protected by Government price caps. Season tickets and saver tickets, which account for 43 per cent of the total paid in fares, are set by the Department for Transport.

Season tickets are still cheaper on most routes than they were at privatisation because they were capped at 1 per cent below inflation in the late 1990s.

Passengers travelling off-peak, when there is often plenty of spare capacity and fares have been much lower traditionally, have been caught by the decision by train companies to abolish the SuperSaver ticket. Off-peak passengers on FGW, Virgin and East Midlands Trains pay 85 per cent more than in 1995.

Unregulated fares are likely to carry on rising well above inflation for at least the next six years because the Government is making train companies pay billions of pounds in premiums for franchise rights.

Ruth Kelly, the Transport Secretary, announced in July that, by 2014, passengers would have to pay 75 per cent of the cost of running the railway and taxpayers would pay the remaining 25 per cent. The £10 billion annual cost is at present divided evenly between fares and subsidy.

Under British Rail it cost less than £4 billion at today’s prices to run the network, though it carried 20 per cent fewer trains.

Passenger Focus, the rail passenger watchdog, said that the survey showed there was no connection in the privatised railway between the quality of service and the price passengers pay.

Anthony Smith, the chief executive of the watchdog, said: “Passengers feel exploited by this monopoly industry. We are concerned that the affordable walk-up railway is dying on its feet.

“Season tickets remain incredibly good value but rail travel has become very expensive for people unable to afford a lump sum in advance. The system is penalising part-time workers.”

Comment:

Every week you read about the poor performance and increasing costs of these rail companies. WHY are they allowed to do so? It is ludicrous

Joe, Bristol, UK