No investigation into fare rises

[Coxster]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/6709919.stm

Fare rises by Arriva Trains Wales and South West Trains are not excessive, according to a rail watchdog.

The companies faced criticism over the changes which mean some off-peak passengers face rises of up to 34%.

The Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) said the increases were unwelcome to the travelling public but it was "not appropriate to open an investigation".

Customer group Passenger Focus said it would challenge the ruling in order to protect people from huge price rises.

Anthony Smith, Passenger Focus chief executive, said: "What this ruling seems to imply is that off-peak passengers are left totally unprotected against unreasonable fare rises.

"The assertion by the ORR that people have a choice simply does not ring true.

'Attractive prices'

"We will challenge this ruling in an attempt to give off-peak passengers some protection against massive price rises."

SWT said the new prices would bring the company into line with other operators and Arriva said it was offering "new attractive prices" for long distance travel and encouraging advance booking.

Examples of the SWT's increases, which were first announced in March, include a cheap-day return from Alton, in Hampshire, to London rising from £15.80 to £19 - a 20.25% increase.

A Bournemouth-to-London cheap-day return will go up from £36.40 to £43.70 - a 20.05% rise.

 

[Dennis]

I suppose if we had true open access, as envisiged at the outset of privatisation, this sort of thing might not happen - imagine privateer operators with clapped out, unwanted old trains undercutting the main players in the marketplace in a situation analagous to the 'bus wars'.

 

[WessexWarrior]

Absolutely insane. I wish someone would break down the figures of public vs private transport and show the Government that their efforts to get people to use public transport are failing miserably.

 

[Mojo]

It's not just off-peak fares under threat. The DfT recently derogated preiously regulated SDR and weekly season fares on the Severn Beach line. The highest increase for a 7DS was 215.8% (between St Andrews Rd and Avonmouth) and for a 185.7% (between St Andrews Rd and Avonmouth, & between Redland and Clifton Down or Montpelier.) The most popular flow, Bristol Temple Meads to Clifton Down went up 33.3% SDR.

 

[Dennis]

I suppose there are several factors hindering modal shift from private cars to railways and just answering a few simple questions will help understand some of them....

when was the last time you had to wait for an hour on your driveway for your car to turn up?

have you ever had to stand in your car because there were not enought seats?

does your car break down at least once a week?

when you filled up the tank, were you told that if you use the fuel today it will cost you about ten times more than if you promised to use it in a fortnight?

did someone pi55 in your car last night,give it a repaint or fill it with litter?

etc,etc


Also, where rail is winning the battle to get people out of their cars, they are now giving up the fight, continuously whinging about lack of capacity. Thats no way to run a business, people want the product so expansion is a must but not at the ridiculous costs being quoted for some of the recent 'upgrades'.

In the above, I have not considered buses; on the whole, I think bus service provision is very good on high volume routes with modern vehicles and high frequency. The main constraint on these types of service being road congestion leading to unacceptably long journey times and overcrowding at peak times.

 

[paul1609]

It's not just off-peak fares under threat. The DfT recently derogated preiously regulated SDR and weekly season fares on the Severn Beach line. The highest increase for a 7DS was 215.8% (between St Andrews Rd and Avonmouth) and for a 185.7% (between St Andrews Rd and Avonmouth, & between Redland and Clifton Down or Montpelier.) The most popular flow, Bristol Temple Meads to Clifton Down went up 33.3% SDR.

To be honest Mojo the fares on the Severn Beach Line are so low these percentages are meaningless. You really havent got much to moan about. The £3 SDR for the whole line wont even buy a SDR for a 2 mile, 1 station hop down here in Sussex!

 

[Mojo]

It's not about that though. The fares were low which gave rail a competitive edge. The train was cheaper as it only runs hourly (or worse), is incredibly unreliable and slow.

The point of this thread, is that the above-inflation fare rises aren't acceptable, and the biggest sham of them all, the reason they were implimented, faster ticket selling, has not been used. The fares might be cheaper, but the end result is a vastly unsuperior product to what you see in most other areas.

 

[Ascot]

Well Virgin XC have gone away with their Super Savers as well now including Kemble ones. Shame as we have to do split tickets now.

 

[paul1609]

It's not about that though. The fares were low which gave rail a competitive edge. The train was cheaper as it only runs hourly (or worse), is incredibly unreliable and slow.

The point of this thread, is that the above-inflation fare rises aren't acceptable, and the biggest sham of them all, the reason they were implimented, faster ticket selling, has not been used. The fares might be cheaper, but the end result is a vastly unsuperior product to what you see in most other areas.

Its ok saying that above inflation fare increases arent acceptable but if the costs of providing the service are increasing at a rate above inflation somebody has to pay for those costs. The reality is that for a variety of reasons the cost of providing rail services has been increasing at well above inflation for a number of years. this has largely been met by the taxpayer until it has reached the point where the subsidy currently enjoyed by the rail industry is not sustainable in the long term.

In the case of the Severn Beach line its main problem is that it doesnt really go where people want to go. For historical reasons it serves a number of small communities that used to be popular resorts and now attract few if any visitors. It doesnt even attract that many residents as they mostly want to travel to either Bristol City centre or out of town shopping malls like Cribbs causeway areas that the railway doesnt serve well if at all.

 

[Mojo]

It most certaintly does go where people want to go! It connects people from Clifton and other locations near the line to the Temple Quay area for work. Being vastly cheaper than parking or buses, it also attracts many people who work in the City Centre - most offices are either in Temple Quay or a short walk from Temple Meads.

The 0800 arrival is always full & standing, as is the 1735. Trains before and after that are normally very busy with most seats taken. The annual passenger count has revealed 36% growth in just 1 year.

 

[paul1609]

I can understand that some people use it for work but even then its a very roundabout route to temple meads. Of Course Temple meads is about 1 Km from the city centre. Most people use the bus.

 

[AlexS]

Just most seats taken? You have wars to get on the things on the Shrewsbury line when 1/4 the trains work over 100 miles on lines that are a lot of single track, and the rest are dependent being diagrammed up to such places as Stansted Airport in the same traction diagram.

Net result is a lot of cancellations - several ATW services per day to/from New Street get cancelled at Wolverhampton or even Shrewsbury, with the removal of the loco hauled trains to Euston the service is entirely balanced with no leeway on 2 carriage and 3 carriage units. In the summer ATW's 158s are so clapped out that they have a habit of falling over at Shrewsbury having dragged themselves over Talerddig.

When the 1724 New Street to Shrewsbury semi fast (which also calls at Smethwick GB, Sandwell, Dudley Port and Coseley or similar) is cancelled due to lack of stock, the 1733 ATW semi fast to Chester is cancelled/started from Wolverhampton due to train delayed on inward journey and the 1757 service is delayed due to congestion at New Street, the 1757 becomes one of the worst places on earth. And that's when they don't have silly time and diagram it for a single 2 car 170. And then form the nearly empty 2057 service with a 5 or 6 carriage set.

Arriva Trains Wales need a huge boot up their backsides.