RAIL ticket price hikes of up to 5.1% came into force yesterday with the RMT, Unite and campaign groups calling for the re-nationalisation of the railways.
A TUC analysis published yesterday has shown that UK commuters spend over three times more of their salary on rail fares than most European passengers.
The New Year hikes push the cost of some commuter travel to more than £5,000 a year.
For example, passengers travelling to London from Deal and Dover Priory will now have to pay £5,012 annually, up from £4,864.
The TUC said in a statement: ‘The TUC’s and rail union’s Action for Rail (AfR) campaign has compared average earnings with season tickets covering similar commuter routes across Europe.
‘This analysis, published yesterday, reveals that commuters using privatised rail services in the UK are paying much higher fares and spending substantially more of their wages on rail travel to work than commuters using publicly-owned trains elsewhere in Europe.’
TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said: ‘Rail passengers and taxpayers are being poorly served by a privatised rail service that has failed to deliver any of the efficiency, investment and cost savings that privatisation cheerleaders promised.
‘While the shareholders of the private train operating companies are doing well for themselves on the back of massive public subsidies, passengers are paying the highest share of their wages on rail fares in Europe. Rail passengers must wonder why they can’t have the same cheap and more efficiently run state rail services that exist elsewhere in Europe.’
At Kings Cross mainline station in London, rail campaigners, passengers and rail unions, handed out mock tickets to passengers yesterday, highlighting the cost of fares and privatisation and calling for public ownership of the railways.
Protesters were joined at Kings Cross by ASLEF General Secretary Mick Whelan and RMT General Secretary Bob Crow.
ASLEF General Secretary Mick Whelan said: ‘Passengers are fed up with the poor value they are being offered by Britain’s privatised train companies and want the government to do something about it.’
RMT General Secretary Bob Crow said: ‘2014 is all set to be another year of racketeering and greed on Britain’s privatised railways.
‘Passengers will continue to pay the highest fares in Europe to travel on creaking, overcrowded trains where raw sewage is dumped on the tracks because the private operators will not stump up for tanks and the staff to empty them. That is a sickening indictment on our privatised railways as we head into the New Year.
‘The only solution – and one that’s opposed by all our main political parties – is total re-nationalisation and the return of our railways to complete public control.’
Unite National Officer Julia Long said: ‘This is startling proof that British commuters are being ripped off by sky-high train fares which have been caused by privatisation.
‘Travellers will rightly be angry with the train operating companies when they see how their European colleagues spend far less on rail fares.
‘UK commuters spending over three times more of their salary on rail fares than European workers is proof that rail privatisation is a busted flush and that Britain needs national rail under public ownership.’
