Mike Rutherford's column

This week, the great rip-off train fare scandal!

Auto Express Car Reviews

By Mike Rutherford

14th December 2007

I've been predicting it, and – surprise, surprise – my prophecy has been realised. It’s now official: the great pretender touted as the alternative to the car has finally priced itself out of the market. For money and other reasons, we the public have decided that nine times out of 10, we prefer car cabins to rail carriages. And that’s official, too. Rail watchdog Anthony Smith has been reported in recent days as saying that rail travel “is for the rich”. He’s so incensed that he claims consumer protection on rail fares is “weak” and passengers are often left “with no choice”.

That’s not me speaking. That’s the head of Passenger Focus, a body funded, endorsed and sponsored by the Department for Transport, which in turn, is owned by HM Government... which gives an £87million-a-day subsidy to railways. Even the Labour-dominated Transport Select Committee admits that train travel is “an abject failure”, with fare structures “chaotic and absurd”.

The Office of Rail Regulation is warning rail passengers that “the price of your train ticket might be very high as the [train] company is abusing its powerful position in the market, and setting prices which are too high under the rules of competition law”. The ORR adds that for a train fare to be legal, it must “relate reasonably to the value of the product/service being supplied”.

Or to put that another way, unreasonably high fares are against the law. Smith recently warned passengers that they will face fare hikes of 20 per cent on South West Trains. Also, he charged this company with “exploiting their monopoly”. He says he’s determined to ensure other train operators don’t follow in South West Trains’ footsteps. And I should think so, too. For heaven’s sake, he’s formally accused a train company of exploitation and monopolisation. Such alleged corporate crimes are illegal under UK law, aren’t they?

If you really don’t care, because you never use South West Trains, that‘s understandable. But I have to say that you’re failing to see the bigger picture here. Neighbouring operator, SouthEastern, will impose fare hikes of up to 14.5 per cent within the next few days, and regular passengers in other parts of Britain will also see fares rise by hundreds of pounds per year. Travellers will be “dismayed” at these inflation-busting rises, says Smith.

The rail watchdog has formally accused a train company of exploitation and monopolisation. Such alleged crimes are illegal, aren’t they?
It’s now not uncommon for a worker, living in a commuter belt that surrounds a city, to pay several thousand pounds for an annual season ticket, despite the fact that his or her journey takes little more than half-an-hour each way. In the West Country, thousands of previously law-abiding passengers refused to pay for their rail journeys, and the plan is for a national “fare strike”.

Nationally, only two in five train users believe they’re receiving value according to the latest National Passenger Survey. A Norwich-London commuter needs to earn around £10,000 gross just to pay for his annual season ticket. London has arguably the most expensive fare on the planet. It costs £4 to travel for a few seconds between Embankment and Charing Cross Station, which are within spitting distance of each other.

But I’ve found an even more eye-watering fare, where travellers are expected to pay nearly £200 for every hour they are on board. For this, a humble car can be run every day for an entire month. I’ll tell you the exact details of this particular rail journey in a future column, because I’m going to be taking it to show what a rip off it, and the railways, are.