Increases to rail fares of an average of 2.8% have come into effect across the UK, with some commuters with annual season tickets now paying more than £5,000 per year to travel to and from work.
Chancellor George Osborne has kept rises below July’s 3.1% Retail Price Index (RPI) inflation rate as he proposed in his Autumn Statement, but with wages continuing to stagnate, the 2.8% rise train users are being hit hard by the rise. Campaigners say that fares are rising as much as three times faster than incomes.
The continued rise of fares above the rate of wage increases for the last decade has seen a number of people calling for the renationalisation of the railways, with more than 50 Labour, Liberal Democrat, Green, Plaid Cymru, and SNP MPs signing a parliamentary motion to that effect.
Research by the TUC’s and rail union’s Action for Rail campaign, which compared average earnings with season tickets prices covering similar routes across Europe, found that UK commuters were paying significantly more for their travel. On certain routes, the research found UK commuters to be spending 14% of their yearly earnings on train travel, whilst those in Germany and France paid 4%, and those in Italy paid just 1%.
TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said:
“Rail passengers and taxpayers are being poorly served by a privatised rail service that has failed to deliver any of the efficiency, investment and cost savings that privatisation cheerleaders promised.
While the shareholders of the private train operating companies are doing well for themselves on the back of massive public subsidies, passengers are paying the highest share of their wages on rail fares in Europe. Rail passengers must wonder why they can’t have the same cheap and more efficiently run state rail services that exist elsewhere in Europe.”
The standard of living looks to be a political battleground for the 2015 elections, with many Britons continuing to feel the pinch as wages have stagnated and falling behind inflation every year since the coalition government came to power in 2008.