Scots rail fares hike of 6% in a year 'a kick in the teeth'

The RMT union, who on Wednesday hosted a series of protests in cities around the UK, including several in Scotland, over past ticket price hikes, says the latest rise was "showing complete contempt for passengers at a time when it should be encouraging as many people as possible to use the rail network".

Peak fares will increase by 2.8% in January next year, mirroring the retail price index (RPI) rate of inflation.

Camley's Cartoon: Anger over rail fare hike

That means a rise of more than £100 in the annual cost for those regularly travelling between Glasgow and Edinburgh for work.

READ MORE: Staff 'almost at breaking point' over Scottish railways floods chaos

The Scottish Government said fare increases were "unwelcome", but said that action had been taken to minimise the impact.

The move comes just eight months after the last rail are hike, with peak fares then going up by 3.2%.

With the latest price rise, it means in the space of a year, rail users will have seen peak time fares rise by around six percent.

So an Anytime single between Edinburgh and Glasgow, which had cost £14.40, before last January's fare rise, will after the latest hike in January, 2020 be up to £15.28.

The ticket price rises come hot on the heels of major disruption on the Scottish railway network due to torrential rain which has caused floods that have brought the world-famous West Highland Line to a standstill, and caused hundreds of services to be cancelled on the key Glasgow to Edinburgh service.

RMT Cut Fares, Not Staff, day of action. Edinburgh this morning. pic.twitter.com/58HdXXo6Z7

— RMT (@RMTunion) August 14, 2019

The Harry Potter-featured West Highland Line which runs from Glasgow to Fort William and onwards to Mallaig, will remain closed between Ardlui and Crianlarich until August 22 as Network Rail Scotland, which runs the rail infrastructure, work to repair the track, part of which was swept away over a week ago.

Rail users have also bombarded ScotRail with complaints in the wake of hundreds of service cancellations covering four months, after the introduction of a new winter timetable at the start of December.

ScotRail was forced to submit a plan to address falling performance levels in February which if unsuccessful could have resulted in a breach of contract and lead to Dutch train operator Abellio losing the franchise early.

The train operator blamed the problems on training issues with new trains leading to staff shortages, while strikes and dealing with train faults also impacted.

The RMT said its new poll of rail users from across the UK shows that 7 in 10 passengers have been negatively affected, in various ways, by rising rail fares, even before the latest hit.

Impacts on passengers included: pressure on monthly finances, being prevented from visiting family and friends, thinking about using other forms of transport for leisure and work and being forced to cut back on other expenses.

RMT general secretary Mick Cash said: “Yet another rail fare hike is a kick in the teeth for rail passengers who are already paying over the odds to travel on overcrowded, clapped out and unreliable trains. This is just corporate welfare for the greedy train companies on an industrial scale.

“With the colossal sums bled out of our railways by private companies, including the £1.2 billion ripped-off by the rolling stock outfits as exposed by RMT, it is crystal clear that a return to public ownership would free up the funds needed to both hold down fares and invest in services.

READ MORE: Disruption as flood-hit West Highland Line wont re-open for two weeks

"The private rail racket has left Britain’s passengers paying the highest fares in Europe to travel on clapped out and unreliable services. It is time for it to end."

Jane Ann Liston, secretary of the Railfuture Scotland campaign group said:"The current situation, where flying between mainland cities is cheaper than taking the train, is crazy. And it will not help the environment should rail passengers decide to go back to driving cars everywhere because of the price rise.

"The current set-up of the railways is not satisfactory and it really needs to be completely overhauled.

"The network also suffers from decades of under-investment, even under nationalisation the industry was seen as a political football. Nor is it simply a matter of who runs the trains.

"However, to do the job properly, would involve a long exercise which is unlikely to be ready to have any effect upon January's increase."

READ MORE: 'National embarrassment': More complaints over ScotRail disruption four months after winter timetable chaos

The rise in off-peak fares north of the border will be held at 1.8%, as the Scottish Government has pledged to cap them at 1% below inflation.

The latest price rise means that a monthly season ticket from Glasgow Central or Queen Street to Edinburgh currently priced at £392 will cost £403 an increase of £11.

A monthly season ticket from Aberdeen to Edinburgh currently costing £761.90 will cost £783.23 up £21.33 An Anytime Day Return between Glasgow Queen Street and Edinburgh will rise by 71p from £25.50 now to £26.21.

But an off peak day return between Glasgow Queen Street and Edinburgh, which benefits from the Scottish Government-supported fare rise discount now costing £13.30 will cost £13.67, a 24p rise.

A Scottish Government spokesman said: “We are committed to ensuring that rail fares are affordable for passengers and taxpayers across Scotland. We have capped increases where we have influence, making fares 20% cheaper on average than in the rest of Great Britain.

“While any fare increase is unwelcome, calls for measures such fares cuts or a fares freeze underestimate the impact of these on the public purse. Two-thirds of the cost of running the railway is already met through Scottish Government subsidy, with the remainder through rail passenger revenues. Any change to rail fares could therefore have a significant impact on the taxpayer.

“The ongoing UK-wide Williams review offers an opportunity to reform the broken rail franchise system. Rather than implement any measures prematurely, we await the UK Government’s white paper in the autumn before making fundamental change. This includes fares policy as we would need to understand how it would work within the context of any change to franchising.”

ScotRail commercial director Lesley Kane said: “Eighty-five per cent of our revenue comes from fares set by the Scottish Government, which decides how much our customers pay. “The money generated from fares is reinvested back into Scotland’s railway, including £475million under Abellio in new and upgraded trains, and improved punctuality, so that we can give our customers the service they expect and deserve.”