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Rail Fares To Increase Above Inflation

 
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mark occomore



Joined: 07 Dec 2006
Posts: 9955
Location: UK

PostPosted: Tue Aug 14, 2012 8:16 am    Post subject: Rail Fares To Increase Above Inflation Reply with quote

Rail fares are set to increase above inflation. The increase is to take the cost away from the Tax Payer. Pay from infrastructure of up and coming projects. Obviously more investment in carriages and punctuality needs to continue.

Remember you are able to continue to buy cheap fares 12 weeks in advance online, but doesn't help those who buy fares on the day of travel.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19251068
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ColinB
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PostPosted: Tue Aug 14, 2012 10:13 am    Post subject: Re: Rail Fares To Increase Above Inflation Reply with quote

mark occomore wrote:
The increase is to take the cost away from the Tax Payer. Pay from infrastructure of up and coming projects.


Can you translate that last sentence please Mark?

mark occomore wrote:
Remember you are able to continue to buy cheap fares 12 weeks in advance online, but doesn't help those who buy fares on the day of travel.


Unless you're Doctor Who.
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mark occomore



Joined: 07 Dec 2006
Posts: 9955
Location: UK

PostPosted: Tue Aug 14, 2012 3:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Look here.' The tax payer does pay into the railways. The rail operators are trying to take the cost away from the traveller. Increase in profit helps improve the rail network. Bob Crow is suggesting nationalising the railways again. This would put a strain on the economy and country'.
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ColinB
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PostPosted: Tue Aug 14, 2012 6:38 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

mark occomore wrote:
Look here.' The tax payer does pay into the railways. The rail operators are trying to take the cost away from the traveller. Increase in profit helps improve the rail network. Bob Crow is suggesting nationalising the railways again. This would put a strain on the economy and country'.


Hang on. I'm not sure about the last sentence, so can you run that by me again? Is that you talking or Bob Crowe?
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RockitRon



Joined: 07 Dec 2006
Posts: 7646

PostPosted: Tue Aug 14, 2012 10:36 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Let's cut to the chase.

The people who use the service are being asked to pay more for the privilege, and to make a contribution, over and above what they already make as taxpayers, to the investment in the new high-speed line from London to Birmingham, Liverpool and Manchester, and improvements to other parts of the infrastructure.

They are also being asked to pay more to enable the new train operators to meet their inflated financial commitments to government under the franchises which have been recently awarded or are being currently bid for - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/9473638/West-Coast-rail-bids-look-an-accident-waiting-to-happen.html

And finally they are being asked to pay more so that the government can reduce the taxpayers' subsidy of the less profitable parts of the network.

Since passenger numbers are now higher than they've been for 90 years, when the network was somewhat more extensive, people must believe that rail travel is good value for money, and I don't think that a price rise of 6.2% (average) is going to do that much to break that illusion.
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ColinB
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PostPosted: Wed Aug 15, 2012 8:25 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

RockitRon wrote:
Since passenger numbers are now higher than they've been for 90 years, when the network was somewhat more extensive, people must believe that rail travel is good value for money, and I don't think that a price rise of 6.2% (average) is going to do that much to break that illusion.


Ask the thousands of commuters having to stand up all the way from Milton Keynes Central to Euston and back every day whether they think the service represents good value for money and they'll disagree. The reason they use the service is that they can at least get to their workplaces in less time than if they drove their cars down the M1 or A5. It's a lot cheaper to drive - but the roads are clogged at either ends of the day. Rail travel is the lesser of the two evils, really.
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R2Icon



Joined: 10 Sep 2009
Posts: 1444

PostPosted: Wed Aug 15, 2012 8:34 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I love trains but then I only travel off peak and in first class, so maybe my experience is not the norm. The trains from here to London are fantastic- bang on time, clean, tidy trains and only £21 each way, first class (off peak), provided you book in advance.
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ColinB
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PostPosted: Wed Aug 15, 2012 8:46 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

When I go into London I try and go off-peak and I have to say that the service is very good. That's why I can't understand the thinking behind the DoT's awarding of the West Coast franchise to First. It can only be about the money (a reported £5.5bn) that will go into the treasury coffers. Whether First can deliver a better service than has Virgin since 1997 remains to be seen - but somehow I doubt it very much.
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ruddlescat



Joined: 16 Sep 2010
Posts: 18010
Location: Near Chester

PostPosted: Wed Aug 15, 2012 7:44 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Whilst I don't travel by train as much as I probably should do I have used the West Coast Mainline service operated by Virgin on more than one occasion and have always found it efficient with the trains running on time

I remember travelling to Bristol a couple of years ago and the journey took less than three hours which I thought was very good going Smile
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