Posted without comment:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11818904

Travellers are facing an average rail fare rise of 6.2% in the new
year, according to industry figures.

Regulated fares, which include season tickets, will go up by an
average of 5.8% from January. Some of these fares could rise by as
much as 10.8%.

Some unregulated fares, typically short distance off-peak ones, will
rise by more than the 6.2% overall average, but the industry is not
giving a figure.

There is no price cap on these so rail firms could raise them by much
more.

BBC transport correspondent Richard Scott said: "Train companies are
bound by competition. If they think they can increase it by 10% then
they will but they don't want to drive people off the railways."

'Tough times'

Gerry Doherty, leader of the TSSA rail union, said the rise was
"simply outrageous".

But the Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC), which
supplied the figures, said the above-inflation rises were a response
to recent government policy changes, which meant passengers having to
pay more towards railway investment.

Michael Roberts, chief executive of ATOC, said: "We know times are
tough for many people but next year's fare increases will ensure that
Britain can continue investing in its railways.

"Even with these fare increases, the money passengers spend on fares
covers only half the cost of running the railways - taxpayers make up
the difference.

"The government is sticking with the previous administration's policy
to cut the taxpayers' contribution to the overall cost of running the
railways.

"Money invested through fares has helped to bring about the record
levels of customer satisfaction and punctuality on the railways
today."

Mr Doherty said: "It is simply outrageous that hard-pressed commuters
are being forced to pay fare hikes of up to 10% when they are
themselves facing pay freezes and job cuts.

"Passengers will regard that as a sick joke seeing as we have the most
expensive and overcrowded railway in Europe."

Regulated fares are tied to an annual price cap formula meaning fares
can increase each January only by the previous July's RPI inflation
rate plus 1%. This means a 5.8% average rise for 2011.

However, companies are able to put up some fares by more than 5% as
long as other fares decrease at the same rate.

In January 2012, passengers will have to dig even deeper into their
pockets when the annual price rise formula changes to RPI plus 3%
across the network.

Our correspondent said rail travel dipped during the recession but, as
the economy recovered, passenger journeys rose 10% over the past year.
Demand, he said, was expected to double over the coming decade.

On Thursday, the government is expected to make an announcement about
long-term rail projects.


Where does your money go?

48p in every £1 goes to Network Rail, which charges operators to
access tracks and other infrastructure costs
17p on staff
17p on miscellaneous costs including train maintenance,
administration, contractors
11p on leasing trains
4p on fuel/energy
3p to train company profit

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11818904

The trouble is the country and therefore, by definition, the coalition
have been dropped in the **** by Labour.

Thirteen years when the ever escalating costs of public institutions
like Network Rail, the NHS and the education system could have been
addressed by reform were instead wasted.

Now with the bailiffs at the door there is simply no time to do these
things in any sort of considered way as the mathematics are driving
everything far too quickly.

Ever increasing amounts of our money were simply ****ed up the wall on
the back of the arcane ideology of a bigger state, by whatever means,
is always good and now we are left with five trillion reasons to show
that it’s actually bad, very bad..

However, the coalition would do well to remember that fare rises for
tax-paying commuters are really tax increases by any other name.

It is absolutely vital that public sector spending cuts should carry
the biggest burden of economic pain during this financial crisis not
tax increases.

Cameron has rightly already identified tax as the biggest risk for
potential public unrest not spending cuts.

We are not the French but, make no mistake, many times in recent years
governments have been reduced to near panic by public outcry but it’s
never been over spending cuts, always tax, just think employer’s NI,
10p tax rate, fuel duty and the irony of the poll tax bringing down
Maggie.

On Nov 23, 5:34*pm, allantracy wrote:
The trouble is the country and therefore, by definition, the coalition
have been dropped in the **** by Labour.

(rant snipped)

A lower deficit than US, a lower debt than Germany...but I don't
expect we'll agree on that

One thing you have not said is that this is a formulaic increase and
the coalition's fortmula increase (RPI +3%) does not come into effect
unril Jan 2012. This is in effect, old policy

What has been clear for some time is that the privatised railway has
lead to big increases in cost. The efficiency increases in the current
control period were set under the last Labour Government. The
coalition has done nothing about that yet, the SOFA and outputs for
the current control periods are unchanged.

What the coalition is doing is simply defering capital expends into
future periods, in my view wrongly [you get more in periods of low
demand and it's economically illiterate] and without mandate [the
LibDems campaigned against the cuts we are seeing now].

Patrick

What the coalition is doing is simply defering capital expends into
future periods, in my view wrongly [you get more in periods of low
demand and it's economically illiterate]


Which kind of makes my point that once the mathematics takeover things
inevitably have to be done in an in-considered way that you would
normally prefer not to.

In article ,
(Bruce) wrote:

Posted without comment:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11818904

[snip details]

Anyone found the individual TOC information? I looked in vain on the FCC
web site. But they have just given it a makeover so it's now pretty
useless.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

On Tue, Nov 23, 2010 at 10:04:59AM -0800, D1039 wrote:
On Nov 23, 5:34=A0pm, allantracy wrote:
The trouble is the country and therefore, by definition, the coalition
have been dropped in the **** by Labour.
A lower deficit than US, a lower debt than Germany...but I don't
expect we'll agree on that

So (ignoring the possible confusion here between deficit and debt) some
other people are even more ****ed than we are. Doesn't mean that we're
therefore OK.

What the coalition is doing is simply defering capital expends into
future periods, in my view wrongly [you get more in periods of low
demand and it's economically illiterate] and without mandate [the
LibDems campaigned against the cuts we are seeing now].

FWIW, I'm a lib dem member, and I say the party should have campaigned
on a platform of *far* greater cuts in state expenditure than we've seen
so far.

Incidentally, in the recent "Trillion Pound Nightmare" programme on
Channel 4, no mention was made of PFI debts. Are those included
in the 4.8 trillion debt, or is that another trillion on top of it?

--
David Cantrell | Minister for Arbitrary Justice

If you have received this email in error, please add some nutmeg
and egg whites, whisk, and place in a warm oven for 40 minutes.

wrote:

(Bruce) wrote:

Posted without comment:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11818904

[snip details]

Anyone found the individual TOC information? I looked in vain on the FCC
web site. But they have just given it a makeover so it's now pretty
useless.


It's not available yet - see this Scotsman article:
http://news.scotsman.com/news/Rail-t...ark.6637523.jp

---quote---
News of the increases yesterday was accompanied by anger from rail watchdogs
that passengers will be unable to find out how much individual tickets will
rise until at least Sunday.
---/quote---

"Mizter T" wrote:
wrote:
(Bruce) wrote:

Posted without comment:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11818904

[snip details]

Anyone found the individual TOC information? I looked in vain on the FCC
web site. But they have just given it a makeover so it's now pretty
useless.


It's not available yet - see this Scotsman article:
http://news.scotsman.com/news/Rail-t...ark.6637523.jp

---quote---
News of the increases yesterday was accompanied by anger from rail watchdogs
that passengers will be unable to find out how much individual tickets will
rise until at least Sunday.
---/quote---


Chiltern Railways posted an announcement on their web site to coincide
with the ATOC announcement. Chiltern's fares will rise by an average
5.7%, which is 0.5% lower than the national average rise:

http://preview.tinyurl.com/23wmccg
or:
http://www.chilternrailways.co.uk/ne...ease-january-0

In article ,
(Mizter T) wrote:

wrote:

(Bruce) wrote:

Posted without comment:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11818904

[snip details]

Anyone found the individual TOC information? I looked in vain on the
FCC web site. But they have just given it a makeover so it's now
pretty useless.

It's not available yet - see this Scotsman article:
http://news.scotsman.com/news/Rail-t...ark.6637523.jp

---quote---
News of the increases yesterday was accompanied by anger from rail
watchdogs that passengers will be unable to find out how much
individual tickets will rise until at least Sunday.
---/quote---

So why were there a range of very specific announcements in the media
coverage?

--
Colin Rosenstiel

On Nov 25, 12:01*am, wrote:

(Mizter T) wrote:

wrote:

Anyone found the individual TOC information? I looked in vain on the
FCC web site. But they have just given it a makeover so it's now
pretty useless.

It's not available yet - see this Scotsman article:
http://news.scotsman.com/news/Rail-t...ark.6637523.jp

---quote---
News of the increases yesterday was accompanied by anger from rail
watchdogs that passengers will be unable to find out how much
individual tickets will rise until at least Sunday.
---/quote---

So why were there a range of very specific announcements in the media
coverage?

Er maybe the above is in reference to ScotRail only - see Bruce's post
where he says that Chiltern posted a simultaneous announcement on
their website when ATOC did their industry-wide one.