View Single Post
  #4   Report Post  
Old December 6th 17, 02:09 AM posted to uk.railway,uk.transport.london
Recliner[_3_] Recliner[_3_] is offline
external usenet poster
 
First recorded activity at LondonBanter: Oct 2014
Posts: 2,990
Default Rail fares to increase by 3.4%

Anna Noyd-Dryver wrote:
Basil Jet wrote:

http://www.itv.com/news/2017-12-05/r...s-3-4-january/


"The Government uses the previous July's Retail Prices Index measure of
inflation to determine increases in regulated fares, which was 3.6%. These
are around half of all tickets and include season tickets on most commuter
routes and some off-peak return tickets on long-distance journeys."

Rate of increase set by the Government not by the TOCs...

Meanwhile,

"The RMT described the fares announcement as "another kick in the teeth"
for passengers.
General secretary Mick Cash said: "For public sector workers and many
others in our communities who have had their pay and benefits capped or
frozen by this Government, these fare increases are another twist of the
economic knife.
"The private train companies are laughing all the way to the bank.""

Surely at least some of the increase is required to pay for the generous
pay increases the union keeps negotiating for its staff?

Staff costs apparently make up around a quarter of every fare, whereas
profits make up 3%...


https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/rail-unions-blamed-for-rising-fares-h990cmhv8?shareToken=b976e0154735f1fdbff828d931556 dc9

So the government will reduce fares growth to CPI if the unions agree that
their wages should also be linked to CPI, and not the higher RPI. So Mr
Cash now has the means to reduce fares growth for those hard-pressed
commuters he's so worried about. I'm sure he will be delighted to show he
means what he says and will duly reduce the RMT's wage demands to CPI…