New year shock for commuters

Written by Vincent Cable and published in Informer on Fri 5th Jan 2007

One nasty New Year shock for commuters is the increased cost of public transport. A Teddington resident says that he is facing a 26% fare increase - £300 a year extra - into central London because of new Zone 6 fares.

The cost of long distance rail travel is worse with an average increase of 8.6% in unregulated (off peak) fares. It can cost £220 for a standard, open, second class, return ticket to Manchester. It is cheaper to fly across Europe, or even to New York. Inevitably, train passengers within the UK now go, if they can, by air, or car, creating pollution and congestion. Each air passenger produces six times as much CO2. The fare structures are completely mad.

For local commuters, there is little choice but to pay since it is virtually impossible to drive into London. And since the trains are packed at peak time, we are paying more for a poorer service. My daily commute from Twickenham increasingly reminds me of travelling on Indian railways. It could get worse. I recently raised in parliament the SW Trains franchise under which large numbers of seats will be removed on suburban services to enable more people to stand rather than increase trains and train length. And while trains are now more punctual, journeys are also longer especially from stations like Teddington and Hampton.

There isn't much relief on the buses either. Fares are up again discouraging the use of buses for short journeys instead of cars.

All of this undermines the declared aim: to shift passengers onto public transport from polluting vehicles (and aircraft). Until prices - through fares and taxes - reflect those priorities, government environmental rhetoric is hot air.