In a case of “bury a press release before everyone goes off on Christmas holidays”, the UK Department of Transport has announced that regulated rail fares will go up by 4.9% in March 2024.
Avanti West Coast Pendolino arriving at Birmingham International – Image, Economy Class and Beyond” width=”800″ height=”457″ />
Avanti West Coast Pendolino arriving at Birmingham International – Image, Economy Class and Beyond.
In some ways, there is a small breath of thankfulness to have – as prices could have gone up 9% (as the UK government likes to use to Retail Price Index to peg its fare rises)
It also promised that fare rises could be lower, with UK inflation dropping to 3.9% (although the government press release keeps quiet about how some of the price rises went up, including some wonderful leadership decisions from Number 10 Downing Street over the past few years).
Today’s announcement means fare increases are lower than last year’s rise and will not increase until 3 March 2024. This means passengers will not see any changes in their fares until then, giving them more time to purchase season tickets at the current rate and keeping fares as low as possible for longer. Fare changes will now take place in March every year moving forward.
The regulated fare cap for National Rail operators in England is also significantly lower than in Scotland where rail fares are set to increase by 8.7% from April next year.
What fares are regulated?
Regulated fares are typically:
- Season Tickets
- Anytime Day tickets
- Off-Peak
- Super Off-Peak
Other fares such as
- Advanced tickets
- First Class
- Off-Peak Day tickets
- Regional tickets
are not regulated, and can be increased by the train operator by however much they like.
The rises do not apply to London Underground, Metrolink, West Midlands Metro, and so on – who will no doubt have to look at their fare packages in the future.
In Quotes
Transport Secretary, Mark Harper, said:
Having met our target of halving inflation across the economy, this is a significant intervention by the government to cap the increase in rail fares below last year’s rise.
Changed working patterns after the pandemic means that our railways are still losing money and require significant subsidies, so this rise strikes a balance to keep our railways running, while not overburdening passengers.
We remain committed to supporting the rail sector reform outdated working practices to help put it on a sustainable financial footing.
Change is in the railways’ nature
Travel is still only 78% of what it was – as people have gone to live with hybrid and work from home – which of course, means fewer passengers- although the railway has noticed a rise in passenger numbers outside the peek.
The rise is being presented as a way of sustaining the rail network fiscally, along with cost-saving reforms as well as the ongoing strikes which have been a theme of the railway.
With more of the rail network taken in-house this year, balancing the books will continue to be a theme, even as investment in extra capacity rail lines is removed and diverted away from HS2 into other projects (that may have been re-announced – another feature of this government).
You’ll wind up paying. And trains will still be delayed
Fare rises are sadly a fact of life – like taxes, they always seem to go up when you least want them to. Sadly, as The I has reported, cancellations and delays are very much in vogue, highlighting Avanti West Coast, Transpennine Express, CrossCountry by Arriva and Northern Trains with high average cancellation rates.
And that only puts the customer off when trying to plan a rail journey, with them resorting to other methods of travel.
Combined with further strikes ahead, it’s going to be another turbulent year on the rails.
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If they wanna I crease rail fares by the inflation rate, they should also raise the salaries by the same amount, but they do not. I am talking about the teachers and NHS workers