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Rail commuters face 20% rise in ticket prices as cap is axed

Dick Murray, Transport Correspondent 18.10.10

London rail commuters face a "double whammy" of fares increases of up
to 20 per cent over the next two years.

The Government is set to remove the price cap which restricts
peak-time fares for at least the next two years. This will send prices
soaring with annual season tickets costing hundreds of pounds more.
Union sources at the Department for Transport revealed the plans in
advance of an announcement on Wednesday.

Fare increases of up to 10 per cent are expected in January and the
same again the following year. A 20 per cent increase would mean an
annual season from Brighton to London would cost £4,226 - an extra
£710 - from 2012.

From Guildford it would mean an extra £554 (£3,272) and from Sevenoaks
an additional £504 (£3,024.)

From Reading a 20 per cent increase would take the cost of an annual
season ticket to £3,992 (and extra £664) from 2012 and from Southend
Central it would cost £3,056 (up £508.)

Ministers won't scrap the cap altogether - so they can reintroduce the
restriction to win votes in the run-up to the general election in
2015.

The DfT is also expected to confirm on Wednesday that subsidies to the
train companies, currently running at more than £800 million a year,
will be cut by a third over the next four years - putting more
pressure on the operators to increase fares. Gerry Doherty, general
secretary of the TSSA transport union, said: "Philip Hammond (the
Transport Secretary) is taking a big gamble by allowing the private
train companies to increase fares by up to 10 per cent in January.

"But he will be committing political suicide if he scraps the fares
price cap altogether and allows the companies freedom to charge what
they like when they like." Only the overall fares policy will be
announced on Wednesday.