{"id":5286,"date":"2015-08-19T08:00:18","date_gmt":"2015-08-19T07:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=5286"},"modified":"2015-08-19T14:57:53","modified_gmt":"2015-08-19T13:57:53","slug":"fares-still-unfair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=5286","title":{"rendered":"Fares still unfair"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Regulated rail fares are set to rise by 1 per cent in January, after inflation figures released today (August 18) show an unchanged Retail Price Index (RPI) in July.<\/p>\n

 
\nOver the last two years, the government has pegged regulated rail fares to RPI, before which they were pegged to RPI plus 1 per cent.<\/p>\n

 
\nYesterday’s announcement (August 18) will make next year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s rise the smallest increase in regulated fares in five years, but this will be little comfort to commuters, who, according to a new TUC analysis, have been pummelled by fares rising three times faster than wages since 2010.<\/p>\n

 
\nThe TUC found that while fares on average went up by 25 per cent in the last five years, wages petered along at only 9 per cent.<\/p>\n

 
\nAlthough the government pledged before May\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s election to \u00e2\u20ac\u015bfreeze\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 fares over the next five years, it merely capped increases to RPI, a measure of inflation that, as Full Fact has pointed out<\/a>, is \u00e2\u20ac\u015bstatistically flawed\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 and consequently is no longer used by the office of national statistics.<\/p>\n

 
\nIf fares were pegged to the more accurate and official measure of inflation, the Consumer Price Index (CPI), regulated fares would have risen by only 0.1 per cent.<\/p>\n

 
\nYesterday’s CPI figures belie the government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s pledge that it would put an end to \u00e2\u20ac\u015binflation-busting fare increases.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nThe 1 per cent rise also disguises the fact that the cap represents an average \u00e2\u20ac\u201c regulated fares on certain routes<\/a> can fluctuate to as much as five per cent above the cap.<\/p>\n

 
\nAlthough the small rise in fares is making headlines today, it will only cover regulated rail fares, which represent less than half of all fares.<\/p>\n

 
\nUnregulated fares, on the other hand, vary considerably, and any savings passed on to commuters by regulated fares are expected to be reversed by fares that are set at the discretion of rail companies.<\/p>\n

 
\nThe most recent Rail Fares Index<\/a> shows just how much freedom rail companies have in ratcheting up unregulated fares.<\/p>\n

 
\nSince 1995, when rail privatisation begun, unregulated standard fares have had an overall real terms increase of a jaw-dropping 32.9 per cent. Over the same time period, long distance standard fares that were not regulated shot up, in real terms, by almost 50 per cent.<\/p>\n

 
\nOut of reach<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

 
\nUnite and other unions have argued that passenger travel is quickly becoming out of reach for the average working person, who is faced with an impossible choice between affordable housing outside urban centres or cheaper travel living closer to work.<\/p>\n

 
\nAnd despite the much-lauded government price cap on fares, any savings will be reabsorbed as an added burden to the taxpayer \u00e2\u20ac\u201c to the tune of \u00c2\u0141700m, according to Department of Transport figures.<\/p>\n

 
\nBringing rail services back into the public sector, on the other hand, would bring substantial savings to both the taxpayers and passengers, according to research commissioned by Action for Rail<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 
\nThe research shows that \u00c2\u01411.5bn could be saved over the next five years if routes, including the Northern, Transpennine and West Coast Main Line, were returned to the public sector.<\/p>\n

 
\nIt also estimates that season tickets could be 10 per cent cheaper by 2017 if routes coming up for re-tender were run by the public sector.<\/p>\n

 
\nA full third (\u00c2\u0141520m) of this \u00c2\u01411.5bn saving would come from recouping the money private train companies pay in dividends to their shareholders.<\/p>\n

 
\nUnite national officer for passenger transport Bobby Morton made the case for renationalising the railways.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe TUC\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s analysis once again reinforces the case that rail privatisation has been an unmitigated disaster for the taxpayer and the put-upon commuter,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt makes strong economic sense to bring the railways back into public ownership and start the process of reducing rail fares, the highest in western Europe, for passengers who have had to endure the 25 per cent hike in rail fares since 2010.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe only people to have benefited from rail privatisation are the shareholders of the rail companies who are scooping up large dividends,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Morton added. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bRailways should be for the public good and economic benefit of the UK and not just for a cartel of rail firms seemingly unable to cut fares.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Regulated rail fares are set to rise by 1 per cent in January, after inflation figures released today (August 18) show an unchanged Retail Price Index (RPI) in July.   Over the last two years, the government has pegged regulated rail fares to RPI, before which they were pegged to RPI plus 1 per cent. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5287,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[252,74],"wps_subtitle":"Rail fare rise sparks call to nationalise","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5286"}],"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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5286"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5286\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5288,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5286\/revisions\/5288"}],"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=5286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}