Daily View: Is train fare increase fair?
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Commentators ask if an 8% average train fare increase is fair.
commuters can afford the rise and those that can't can move:
"Now, it is true that the cost of living in London has driven many out into the suburbs and beyond, and they will face a painful squeeze. The answer to that is the environmentally and socially desirable aim of allowing people to work from home and to move jobs out of the crowded South-east.
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"Eventually, the punitive cost of housing and travel will move people and jobs, and the economy will enter a second stage of its much-needed rebalancing. Realistic fares will speed that moment on."
But train historian that commuters are a captive market who should be protected:
"Privately, ministers might suggest that they are not in the business of subsidising well-heeled commuters in Woking at the expense of far poorer taxpayers in Workington who don't have access to a good rail network. But that is to make two cardinal errors.
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"First, our friends in Woking who work in the city have little alternative to using the train, since the roads are virtually impassable at rush hour and there is no parking space in London. Second, London is the engine of the economy. It needs a decent, affordable transport system, especially as more than 70 per cent of rail journeys start or end in the capital."
passengers are bearing the brunt of costs from privatisation:
"By and large we've tried to operate our trains as cheaply as possible, hence railway privatisation - which has made them five times more expensive to operate than in the days of British Rail. The problem is fragmentation. For instance, every minute of delay triggers a paper trail as the train operator seeks compensation from another train operating company or from Network Rail, or Network Rail seeks compensation from... Into every crevice in the system, a lawyer has been inserted."
Director at Campaign for Better Transport, how the rail prices could be kept down:
"Rather than penalising commuters we should be looking to cut the costs of the railway which are 40 per cent higher than equivalent countries. The Government knows the industry's costs are too high and have already identified potential cost savings of up to £1 billion a year in the future - that should allow for investment and lower fares - the savings shouldn't just be clawed back into government coffers."
As this rise pushes up season tickets between Norwich and Liverpool Street to more than £7,000 a year, the local paper a familiar statistic:
"Latest overcrowding figures from the Office of Rail Regulation show some 8.4% of passengers have to stand because there aren't enough seats on 35% of trains on the Norwich - Liverpool Street line.
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"The percentage bears an uncanny resemblance to the latest fares hike."
