Sophie Allain reveals the shocking disparity between British fares and those in the continent.
Sophie Allain is the Campaign for Better Transport’s public transport campaigner.
We knew we had some of the most expensive rail fares in Europe, if not the world, but even we were shocked when we compared a sample UK season ticket with four similar European ones. Our UK ticket cost three and a half times more than the most expensive European one and almost ten times (9.7) more than the cheapest one we looked at.
It is not surprising that British passengers are fed up with being ripped off. A national passenger protest is happening today, the first business day after the New Year.
People are heading back to work and ticket offices, train carriages and social networking sites are buzzing with the voices of irate passengers. You can join in by tweeting, texting or calling George Osborne to show your anger at fare rises. All the details can be found at www.farefail.org or by following @fairfaresnow on twitter.
Our rail tickets are eye-wateringly expensive. Our European comparisons highlight just how expensive commuting by rail has become. We compared the cost of commuting using a multi-modal season annual ticket into five European capital cities from a commuter town approximately 23 miles from the capital:
• Woking to London, £3,268
• Ballancourt-sur-Essonne to Paris, £924.66
• Strausberg to Berlin, £705.85
• Collado-Villalba to Madrid, £653.74
• Velletri to Rome, £336.17
The bad news is it’s set to get worse. The government is still planning to press ahead with inflation plus three per cent increases in January 2013 and January 2014, meaning fares will be 24 per cent higher by the next election.
When the cost of season tickets is so much higher than other European capitals, the government’s fare rises are starting to affect the UK’s competitiveness. That’s why if the government is serious about promoting economic growth it must also look at reducing planned fare rises in 2013 and 2014 as part of a policy to cut fares and make public transport truly affordable.
See also:
• Serious concerns over transport commissioning – how will Greening respond? – Matt Dykes, December 16th 2011
• Our outdated transport system is running on empty – Richard Dyer, November 17th 2011
• Scotland needs to get its transport infrastructure in order – Ken Macintosh MSP, October 27th 2011
• Boris fiddles as London prepares for transport chaos – Alex Hern, October 19th 2011
• Boris’s transport boasts are pure piffle – Rob Jenks, March 31st 2011
38 Responses to “Rip-off Britain: Our train fares are triple those on the continent”
H. O.
RT @leftfootfwd: Rip-off Britain: Our train fares are triple those on the continent http://t.co/0DFlGfBT
Fair Fares Now
Read this @leftfootfwd blog on rip-off Britain's train fare rises and take action #farefail http://t.co/iuguREZj http://t.co/3oqWhJr8
Blarg1987
Well most of the contenent is state run and they do a reasonable job, granted the old state rail system wasn;t perfect, however it would be hard to say they did not do a very good job witht he few resources available, granted no system is perfect just like the NHS yet we all expect something to be perfect but not pay for it. Either way there has been large amounts if investment in the rail network which is being reduced so the shortfall has to be made up with higher ticket prices now it would be interesting if it was non for profit how much reduced would the costs for all these projects be?
Nick Leaton
Take a well run example – Switzerland.
Cost of a GA (General Abonnoment) 2350 CHF for a couple. Covers all of Switzerland, bar one or two mountain railways.
800 quid at current rates per person.
Salaries higher than the UK. Runs on Time (almost). Clean. Efficient.
UK charges commuters 3,000 in lots of cases per person. Nearly 4 times more.
In other words the commuters and the tax payers who are mugged for others to use the service are paying for a Rolls Royce service, but getting a clap out Moris Minor for their money.
Take one, Cross Rail. 200,000 passengers a day top end, 16 bn cost (Olympic estimate). Debt costs per day of 3 million a day. So just to cover debts, the ticket price needs to be 15 quid. More for running costs.
Will 200,000 passengers fork out 4-5 grand a year to use it?
They won’t. So someone else will pay the price.
Jon Pinkney
RT @leftfootfwd: Rip-off Britain: Our train fares are triple those on the continent http://t.co/areDWks3