Train commuters face 10% fare rise and no extra carriages

Commuters were warned today they face fare rises of up to 10 per cent with journeys at peak times being made in “cattle truck” conditions.

Transport union bosses issued the stark warning after Transport Secretary Philip Hammond signalled he may scrap the current system which links rail fares to inflation.

Mr Hammond suggested that the system may be ditched as a result of of the autumn spending review, in which government departments will have to find savings of up to 25 per cent.

Under the existing system, commuters using the busiest lines at peak times would face fare rises of six per cent in January next year if inflation stays at its current level. However, Mr Hammond failed to rule out even bigger increases if his budget is shredded in the review — experts say the cut could be as much as 33 per cent.

He said: “We are hoping we will be able to hold on to the formula but we need to wait for the spending settlement before I can say exactly what I have to do next year.”

Plans for 1,300 extra carriages to ease overcrowding are also set to be scaled back.

There was an immediate backlash from commuter groups, Labour and union bosses. Speaking from the RMT's annual meeting in Aberdeen, general secretary Bob Crow said: “It could not be clearer — the Government are planning to bleed rail passengers dry and attack essential modernisation programmes while ring-fencing the profits of the train operators.

“That's not sharing the pain. We could see fares jacked up by as much as 10 per cent while passengers are crammed into ancient carriages running on creaking track with huge safety risks the length and breadth of the country.”

Regulated fares include season tickets, peak-time tickets, full-fare single and returns in commuter areas and saver off-peak tickets on long-distance routes.

Jo deBank, of London TravelWatch, said: “We all know the economic situation, but pricing people off public transport and the railways is not the right answer. If fares go up any more than currently planned, some people will really struggle to get to work and go about their daily life.”

Shadow transport secretary Sadiq Khan, MP for Tooting, warned against “fleecing Londoners with soaring fares for cattle-truck style commuting”.

He added: “It's OK for Philip Hammond who does not use public transport but for the million of Londoners that do, a massive hike in the cost of train tickets will hit them hard. This is on top of the record increases the Mayor announced last January on our buses and the Tube.”

Piling pressure on Transport Minister Norman Baker, a Lib-Dem, he said that the Liberal Democrats had argued in their manifesto for rail fares to rise by the rate of inflation minus one per cent. A bigger increase would be “another broken promise”, Mr Khan added.

Department for Transport officials said that although Mr Hammond is driven to work in a government car he also uses public transport.

Transport for London officials confirmed that fare rises on buses and the Tube could be set at two per cent above inflation.

Last year Mayor Boris Johnson disregarded the fact that RPI was minus 1.4 per cent in July, and agreed a 3.9 per cent increase for the Tube and 12.7 per cent on the buses.

In an interview in the Financial Times, Mr Hammond also signalled his determination to press on with a high- speed rail network throughout Britain, highlighting the environmental benefits. “Domestic flying in the UK will become in time a thing of the past,” he said.

He has also backed the £16 billion Crossrail scheme for London, which has already begun. But with his budget facing a tight squeeze, possibly of up to £5 billion annually, there are concerns that the Crossrail will either not be completed on schedule by 2017 or that it will be scaled back.

But Mr Hammond said: “Transport infrastructure investment ... is a way in which the Government can support the private sector economic recovery.”

The failed part-privatisation of London Underground finally came to an end today after Tube bosses signed the deal to take over Tube Lines — the disgraced maintenance giant responsible for the Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly lines.

It was similar to the Metronet fiasco three years ago when the Tube's largest private maintenance consortium collapsed with debts of £2 billion.

Metronet's 7,000 staff joined Transport for London and are now joined by 2,500 more from Tube Lines.

"It is absolutely legitimate for anybody to look at, in terms of raising revenues," said Finch. "Everybody complains about rail fares being awful, but we have more than 1bn journeys on the railways every year. That tells you that in the overall scheme of things the railway is an effective form of travel and is an integral part of peoples' lives."