Public transport campaigners cautioned that the fare hikes will “pile further misery on hard-pressed households”
Rail fares in England and Wales are set to rise by 4.6% from Sunday. Railcards are also going to become more expensive, despite record-low reliability of services.
Public transport campaigners cautioned that the fare hikes will “pile further misery on hard-pressed households” as some commuters will have to pay hundreds of pounds more per year for travel. Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander acknowledged passenger frustration. The UK government set the 4.6% cap for England’s increase in regulated fares.
This will include season tickets on most commuter journeys, some off-peak return tickets on long-distance routes and flexible tickets for travel around major cities. Operators set rises in unregulated fares – but these are likely to rise by the same amount.
The Welsh government matched Westminster’s cap, while Transport for Wales is applying various increases to its unregulated fares. Meanwhile, the Scottish government will increase all ScotRail fares by 3.8% from 1 April.
Railcards in Britain, excluding those for disabled passengers, also became more expensive for the first time in 12 years on Sunday. The price of a three-year card has risen from £70 to £80, while a one-year card has increased from £30 to £35.
Alexander said: “I understand that passengers are frustrated rail fares keep rising despite unacceptable levels of delays and cancellations, which is why this government made sure this was the lowest increase in three years, and below the growth in average earnings. We inherited a railway that was not fit for purpose, and I know it will take time for trust to be restored, with trains turning up on time, when and where they’re needed.”
Michael Solomon Williams, from Campaign for Better Transport, said: “With food and energy costs going up, today’s rail fare rise will pile further misery on hard-pressed households. Cost is the number one barrier to getting more people travelling by rail, so the government must address the rising cost of train travel as part of its forthcoming rail reforms.”
Adrian Rose, 50, from Sittingbourne in Kent says hiking rail fares when they are already “crazily expensive” is not justifiable.
For him and his wife and two daughters to drive from Kent to see relatives in Newcastle is no more than £100 in fuel for the family, whereas to go by train can cost more than £400 if booking close to the departure date. “The cost is prohibitive,” he says. “I would happily take the train, but for over four times the cost? I could have a week’s holiday for that money.”
But Celia Downie, who uses the train regularly for work and leisure, says she will continue to do so “however much it costs”, because “I can work on the train and I believe it is environmentally proper to do so”.
But the 68-year-old from Bristol, who has a Senior Railcard, also believes prices are too high for families and says sometimes the experience of cramped carriages is “absolutely appalling”.
Heidi Alexander said she understood passenger frustration that fares keep rising “despite unacceptable levels of delays and cancellations”. However, she said it was the lowest absolute increase in fares for three years.
But the Campaign for Better Transport said the fare increases would add to the pressure on households, coming on top of higher food and energy costs. Michael Solomon Williams, head of campaigns at the group, said high ticket prices were the “number one barrier to getting more people travelling by rail”, and called on the government to bring down fares as part of rail reforms.
“The majority of the public are in favour of a publicly owned railway, but this support all but vanishes if fares were to continue to increase,” he said. The campaign group said out of 40 commuter routes into London, annual season tickets for three will top £6,000 for the first time, with 10 others already there. Annual season tickets from Canterbury and Southampton into London will go up by more than £300 to £7,100 and £7,477 respectively. The government plans to renationalise rail firms as operators’ contracts either end or reach a break.
Last year, it said South Western Railway would be renationalised in May 2025, C2C in July 2025, and Greater Anglia in autumn 2025. It is setting up a new arms-length body, Great British Railways (GBR), to take over service contracts currently held by private firms as they expire in the coming years.
