{"id":16910,"date":"2019-01-02T16:45:32","date_gmt":"2019-01-02T16:45:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=16910"},"modified":"2020-11-12T12:57:49","modified_gmt":"2020-11-12T12:57:49","slug":"rail-fare-hike-insult","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=16910","title":{"rendered":"Rail fare hike \u00e2\u20ac\u015binsult\u00e2\u20ac\u0165"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Greedy rail bosses have increased fares by 3.1 per cent today, despite having paid out more than \u00c2\u01411bn in dividends to shareholders over the last six years.<\/p>\n

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The TUC revealed the shock findings as protests were held at train stations across the country against sky high ticket prices and unreliable services.<\/p>\n

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Unite described the 3.1 per cent increases as an \u00e2\u20ac\u015binsult\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 and called for train services to be taken out the hands of privatised firms and into public ownership.<\/p>\n

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TUC analysis shows that UK commuters spend up to five times more on season tickets than communters in European countries.<\/p>\n

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Daily passengers travelling from Chelmsford to London will have to fork out \u00c2\u0141393 a month for a season ticket this year \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the equivalent of 13 per cent of an average person\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s salary.<\/p>\n

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By contrast, comparable commutes would cost a mere 2 per cent of the average salary in France, 3 per cent in Ireland and 4 per cent in Germany and Belgium.<\/p>\n

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Wages are set to grow by only 2.5 per cent in 2019, while season tickets will go up by 3.1 per cent.<\/p>\n

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It will be the ninth time in the last ten years that rail fares have risen by more than wages.<\/p>\n

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Hapless<\/b><\/i> transport<\/i><\/b> secretary<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Unite national officer for the rail industry Harish Patel said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bGiven last year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s rail timetable chaos, presided over by the hapless transport secretary Chris Grayling, there should be no rail fare increases for hard-pressed travellers in 2019 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c fares should have been frozen. The 3.1 per cent rise is an insult.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bAs usual, the real \u00e2\u20ac\u0098winners\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 are the greedy shareholders of the privatised rail companies that have gobbled up more than \u00c2\u01411bn in ill-gotten dividends in the last six years \u00e2\u20ac\u201c money that could have gone towards freezing fares and boosting rail investment.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bEvery day the case for the public ownership of the rail industry grows stronger, especially after the woeful performance of 2018.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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TUC General Secretary Frances O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Grady also slammed the poor management of the UK\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s rail services by private companies.<\/p>\n

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O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Grady said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe most reliable thing about our railways is the cash that goes to private shareholders each year. But with the most expensive fares in Europe, that can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be right. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s rewarding failure and taking money away that should be invested in better services.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time to take the railways back into public hands. Every penny from every fare should go back into the railways. The number one priority should be running a world class railway service, not private profit.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Greedy rail bosses have increased fares by 3.1 per cent today, despite having paid out more than \u00c2\u01411bn in dividends to shareholders over the last six years.   The TUC revealed the shock findings as protests were held at train stations across the country against sky high ticket prices and unreliable services.   Unite described […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5287,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[252,74,781],"wps_subtitle":"Train passengers face 2019 price pain as shareholders rake it in","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16910"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16910"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16910\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25656,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16910\/revisions\/25656"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}