11.12.12
Train fares up 26% since 2008 – TUC
Average train fares are increasing almost three times faster than wages, new research from the TUC indicates.
Rail ticket prices have risen by over 26% since 2008, the TUC stated as part of its Action for Rail campaign. Today campaigners will be lobbying at 50 train stations around the country, warning against fare rises, ticket office closures, staff cuts, delays and disruption and the increase of ‘transport poverty’.
Fares on some journeys are set to increase by 10% in 2013, with average salaries forecast to increase by just 2.5%, the research shows.
Protests are being held at Euston, Paddington and Kings’ Cross stations in London, as well as in Leicester, Nottingham, Manchester, Newcastle, Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Exeter.
TUC general secretary-designate, Frances O’Grady, said: “Train fares have massively outstripped wages and inflation, even during the recession. Train operating companies seem to have completely ignored the fact that real-term incomes and living standards have fallen and have ploughed ahead with eye-watering price hikes.”
Mick Whelan, leader of the train drivers' union, Aslef, added: “At a time of economic uncertainty the Government should be trying to help people get around, not restrict them.”
RMT union general secretary Bob Crow said: “We are fighting to reverse the reductions in jobs and investment and to end the rip-off of privatisation and halt the tidal wave of cuts in the pipeline under the Government's McNulty plans.”
The Transport Salaried Staffs Association general secretary, Manuel Cortes, said: “The Government seems determined to make a reality of Philip Hammond's statement that rail travel is now a rich man's toy.”
Unite's national rail officer Julia Long said: “The network’s private rail operators think nothing of hiking their fares. Once again, millions of ordinary people are being punished by this government's abject failure to get to grips with a crisis that is squeezing household budgets to breaking point.”
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