Labour slam rail fare increases

LABOUR activists at Warrington have slammed increases in rail fares which came into force with the New Year.
Steve Wright, chairman of Warrington South Constituency Labour Party  hit out at the government for consistently failing passengers and commuters.
He said: “Passengers in Warrington have been hit over the years by eye-watering rail fare rises.
“Fares have rocketed since the Tories came to power and Warrington is no exception.  The overall hike is much greater than the average increase in people’s wages and that is causing real problems.
“For many people here, travelling by train isn’t a luxury, it’s how they get to work every day. A season ticket to Manchester Piccadilly now costs £1,692 and to Liverpool Lime Street it is £1,512.
“That is an awful lot of money for people to find.  Labour’s policy is to bring the railways into public ownership so they can be run for passengers not profit. That means fairer fares, investment in a 21st century railway and listening to passengers.”
Independent sources say the new increase in fares is 2.3 per cent on average.  Allowing for inflation, the increase is about 25 per cent since the mid-1990s – although Labour claim the rise is 27 per cent.
The government claims the increases will pay for the biggest investment programme on the railways for more than 100 years.
Transport Secretary Chris Grayling – a former Conservative candidate in Warrington South – said the government had fairly balanced the cost of modernising the railways between the taxpayer and the passenger.
Successive governments have been changing the proportion of the rail bill paid by passengers. It used to be around 50 per cent – now it is around 70 per cent.
This means that people who do not use train regularly – and that is the majority of people – are paying less for the railways.