Rail fares to soar again

5.49.00am GMT Mon 3rd Dec 2007

Rail passengers got their usual antidote to a happy Christmas as yet again above-inflation fare rises for next year are announced. Regulated fares will rise by an average 5% and unregulated fares (most of them) by more than that.

Herts Liberal Democrat transport spokesperson Malcolm Cowan said: 'We warned last year that the new rail franchises with high premium payments to the government would force up fares, and so it has proved. This was all organised while Gordon Brown was chancellor, so he can't complain that it is another legacy of Tony Blair ' he is the man in the frame.

'Anyone who travels by train in mainland Europe knows how expensive British fares are ' the UK really is the centre of the rip-off culture, but in this case it is government-orchestrated.

'At the same time, Labour implore us to use public transport, but ministers travel free in their chauffeur-driven cars, ignorant of what they have visited upon the public by their policies. The double standards are what we have come to expect.'

Malcolm concluded: 'The present fares give the operators a profit, the rolling-stock companies a profit and a big surplus for the government. Why on earth should fares rise so much?'