COMMENT
Who should pay for the railways – passengers or taxpayers?
Julian Huppert MP, who represents Cambridge and is co-chair of the Lib Dem transport committee, says his party opposes the consensus that passengers should bear an ever-increasing burden of the costs of rail.
S
ince the last Government introduced above infl ation
rail fare rises in 2003, the story has been the same every year: higher prices for increasingly over-crowded services.
Public patience for these rises is beginning to wear thin. This year, there were reports that the Train Operating Companies stepped in to urge against a planned increase of RPI+3%, after worries that fare levels could begin to put people off the railways, and force revenues down.
Rail travel is cleaner, greener, more effi cient and frequently quicker than other forms of transport. And with ever rising fuel prices, increasingly congested cities and looming climate targets, rail is fast becoming the only
A protest against rising rail fares and Government transport policy at King’s Cross station
viable option for a vast number of citizens and public policy makers alike.
For these reasons, not only would an RPI+3% increase have been wrong, rail fares should come down in real terms. Coalition is about compromise, so we agreed to an interim cap of RPI+1% for 2012; in between our position and
that of the Tories. Thankfully, that cap has now been renegotiated for this year and the next.
There is fundamental agreement between both Labour and the Tories that passengers should bear an ever-increasing burden of the costs of rail. The Liberal Democrats simply do not agree. We need to end the era of above- infl ation fare rises, and I and my Party believe that fares should go up by no more than 1% below infl ation.
The McNulty review of the railways highlighted that part of the reason our fares are high and rising, is because our railways are up to 40% less effi cient than European counterparts. Fixing that requires some painful savings, which we support, but only if the savings found are used to reduce fares.
In addition, we need investment in order to improve effi ciency. The other parties think this should largely be paid for by passengers, but it is Government failure which caused under-investment for the last few decades, and we have to encourage more, not less, people to use trains.
If we are to continue the extraordinary boom in passenger numbers we’ve seen over the last few years, we have to make rail
travel attractive and affordable. Yearly fare rises will force people off.
I am delighted that, with this in mind, this Government is investing more in the railways than any other since the Victorian era. Over 800 miles of rail electrifi cation has been committed to, the last Government managed just 9.
And with Crossrail going ahead and HS2 coming down the line, we have the ambitious projects needed to drive up capacity and effi ciency in the long-term, and drive down costs in the long-term: cost-savings which should be passed on to passengers.
Clearly, times are tight. But if the chancellor can afford to scrap planned fuel duty rises, and drop the fares cap by 2% this year, he can afford to drop it by another 2% and bring fares down in real terms.
Coupled with the Coalition’s investment program, this could truly bring about a
revolution on our railways which will serve our country now and in the future.
TELL US WHAT YOU THINK
opinion@railtechnologymagazine.com
14 | rail technology magazine Oct/Nov 12
Julian Huppert
© Craftivist Collective
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84