Rail fares across England will rise by almost 6 per cent as of next year, the Department for Transport (DfT) has confirmed.
The DfT has installed a cap of 5.9 per cent in total with regards to increases to fares regulated by the Conservative Government, including season tickets on commuter journeys, some off-peak return tickets on a long-distance scale, and flexible travel tickets around major cities.
It announced that this is some 6.4 percentage points lower than the inflation figure which fare rises are traditionally based on.
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The PA News Agency reports that train operators are able to set unregulated fares, but in hindsight, their decisions are heavily influenced by the current Government - due to contracts introduced through the global Coronavirus pandemic. Fares are set to rise from March 5, 2023.
Transport Secretary Mark Harper, said: “This is the biggest-ever Government intervention in rail fares. I’m capping the rise well below inflation to help reduce the impact on passengers.
“It has been a difficult year and the impact of inflation is being felt across the UK economy. We do not want to add to the problem.
"This is a fair balance between the passengers who use our trains and the taxpayers who help pay for them.”
Annual fare increases in the past were implemented on the first working day of the year, but have been delayed since the Covid-19 pandemic caused widespread disruption worldwide. Following the privatisation of railways in the mid-1990s, regulated fare rises have not exceeded one percentage point above the Retail Price Index (RPI) measure of inflation.
The RPI figure from the July previous is commonly used, which sat at 12.3 per cent this year. The DfT in turn said that 'for this year only' it will align the increase with July's average earnings growth - but the opposing Labour party attacked the 5.9 per cent increase.
Shadow Transport Secretary Louise Haigh, said: “This savage fare hike will be a sick joke for millions reliant on crumbling services. People up and down this country are paying the price for 12 years of Tory failure.”
David Sidebottom, director at watchdog Transport Focus, added: "No-one likes prices going up. In our latest research, less than half of passengers think the railway currently performs well on delivering value for money tickets. After months of unreliable services and strike disruption, it’s clear that too many passengers are not getting a value for money service.
“Capping fares below inflation and the delay until March is welcome and will go some way to easing the pain, but the need for reform of fares and ticketing in the longer-term must not be forgotten.”
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