Luke James writes:
Transatlantic flights are now cheaper than
sky-high return fares charged by rail privateers for journeys between London
and Glasgow, official figures revealed today. Passengers face a stunning £338 fare for a return
journey between the cities with Virgin Trains if they buy their ticket on the
day of travel.
Yet round trip flights across 3,450 miles of
ocean to New York were available today for £298 through a popular travel price
comparison site. The discovery delivers another embarrassing blow
to rail privateers who claim to deliver good value and politicians who back the
rip-off.
Rail union RMT said this is just one example of
"blatant rail racketeering" contained in the latest data released by
the Office for Rail Regulation.v Figures showed journey prices for
"walk-on" passengers have soared by 23 per cent over the past nine
years - outstripping inflation by a quarter.
RMT general secretary Bob Crow said passengers
were being punished by "a poisonous combination of political ideology and
boardroom greed."
"The British are being squeezed dry, paying the highest fares in Europe to travel on unreliable, overcrowded trains while the profits and bonuses in the rail company boardrooms bleed hard cash out of the network," he said. "Public ownership of our railways is the only way to end this scandal."
"The British are being squeezed dry, paying the highest fares in Europe to travel on unreliable, overcrowded trains while the profits and bonuses in the rail company boardrooms bleed hard cash out of the network," he said. "Public ownership of our railways is the only way to end this scandal."
Green MP Caroline Lucas has recently put down a
Private Members Bill in Parliament calling for the renationalisation of
Britain's railways. She pointed out today that rail companies are
also taking huge public subsidies while handing 90 per cent of their profits to
shareholders.
She told the Star: "If we eliminated the costs created by private ownership, passengers would see fairer fares and improved services. That's why I hope MPs, especially on the Labour benches, will vote for my Bill to bring the railways back into the hands of the public."
She told the Star: "If we eliminated the costs created by private ownership, passengers would see fairer fares and improved services. That's why I hope MPs, especially on the Labour benches, will vote for my Bill to bring the railways back into the hands of the public."
A spokeswoman for Virgin Trains insisted today
that it offers a wide range of fares. "They are more expensive for passengers who
buy their tickets on the day but this does not give the whole picture,"
she said.
But Bruce Williamson of the Rail Future campaign group warned that the fare rises are driving people off the trains and into cars. He said: "If the government was really interested in promoting greener travel it would be helping people to get on the trains rather than attempting to price them off."
"People want the convenience and flexibility of walk-on fares but they are the expensive ones. Whilst cheaper advanced fares are very nice in some circumstances, in many others they are not very practical or useful to people."
But Bruce Williamson of the Rail Future campaign group warned that the fare rises are driving people off the trains and into cars. He said: "If the government was really interested in promoting greener travel it would be helping people to get on the trains rather than attempting to price them off."
"People want the convenience and flexibility of walk-on fares but they are the expensive ones. Whilst cheaper advanced fares are very nice in some circumstances, in many others they are not very practical or useful to people."
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