British rail passengers spend six times more on train fares than European counterparts

Shehab Khan in The Independent

Rail passengers are spending six times more on fares than their peers in Europe - with 14 per cent of their income being spent on monthly season tickets.

Those commuting from Luton to London pay an average of £387 a month, significantly more than the £61 paid by those in Paris and Rome.

This equates to an average of 14 per cent of monthly earnings, significantly higher than the 2 per cent seen in France, 3 per cent in Germany and 4 per cent in Spain, according to Action for Rail.

TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said that not only are prices high but trains were “overcrowded”, “understaffed” and the infrastructure was “out-of-date”.

"British commuters are forced to shell out far more on rail fares than others in Europe. Many will look with envy at the cheaper, publicly-owned services on the continent,” he said.

"Years of failed privatisation have left us with sky-high ticket prices, overcrowded trains, understaffed services and out-of-date infrastructure. Private train companies are milking the system, and the government is letting them get away with it."

Country	From	To	Distance (miles)	Monthly season ticket cost	Monthly earnings	% of monthly earnings
UK	Luton	London St. Pancras	35	£387	£2,759	14%
UK	Liverpool Lime Street	Manchester Piccadilly	32	£292	£2,759	11%
Germany	Dusseldorf	Cologne	28	£85	£2,624	3%
France	Mantes-la-Jolie	Paris	34	£61	£2,545	2%
Italy	Anzio	Rome	31	£61	£2,015	3%
Spain	Aranjuez	Madrid	31	£75	£1,917	4%

RMT General Secretary Mick Cash said: "British passengers are paying the highest fares in Europe to travel on rammed services while the private train companies are laughing all the way to the bank. Companies like Southern Rail and their French owners are siphoning off cash to subsidise rail services in Paris and beyond."

Mick Whelan, the General Secretary of ASLEF added: "It is scandalous that the government is allowing privatised train companies to make even more money for providing an ever-poorer service. We have the most expensive railway in Europe and the train companies, aided and abetted by this government, are about to make it even more costly for people to travel."

Action for Rail

Transport Secretary, Chris Grayling said: “Thanks to action by the Government on train ticket prices, wages are growing faster than regulated fares. This commitment to cap regulated fares in line with inflation will save annual season ticket holders an average £425 in the five years to 2020.

“To improve services, we are investing more than £40billion into our railways. This will provide passengers with better trains that are faster and more comfortable. 

"We are delivering the biggest rail modernisation programme for more than a century, providing more seats and services. We have always fairly balanced the cost of this investment between the taxpayer and the passenger.

"On average, 97% of every £1 of a passenger's fare goes back into the railway.”

Schoolmates used to ask me about Indian trains. I can now confirm British ones are worse

Nish Kumar in The Guardian

Protesters against Southern Rail in London last month: a 2015 poll revealed nearly 60% of the public supports public ownership of the railways. Photograph: NurPhoto/Getty Images





Last week Southern Rail staff went on strike, leaving thousands of commuters facing a slightly improved service. Southern’s non-stop calamities this summer have added support to the idea of renationalisation. This debate is something I watched with great interest. I’m a standup comedian who can’t drive. I have never learned. I don’t trust my hand-eye coordination. You’re looking at someone who once dropped a cricket ball on to his own head during a routine catching practice; I don’t think it’s a great idea to have me in control of a high-speed metal death robot.

So I rely on the train system in this country. And I can tell you from firsthand experience that our train system is a mess. Carriages are full of unhappy travellers packed together like sardines, who have inexplicably paid for the privilege of being incarcerated. Periodically, everyone has to flee for cover, either by lying across the laps of the passengers lucky enough to have a seat, or by climbing into the luggage racks on the ceiling to allow the optimistically named “buffet” cart to pass through just in case anyone wants to spend £50 on a packet of crisps or a single fruit pastille.

And it’s not cheap, either. Train fares have increased way out step with inflation, meaning the percentage of our salaries we spend on train fares is now six times higher than many of our European counterparts – and that’s if you plan ahead. If you want to travel from London to Manchester, and have not booked a ticket, be prepared to sell a kidney or stay at home. Frequent train travellers have to plan ahead, booking months in advance to avoid massive fares. But there is still the risk that you will turn up on the day and the train will have lost its seat reservations for no apparent reason, and you will end up wedged between the door and the bathroom. Other than a music festival, a train is the only thing you might have to buy a ticket for and still end up spending an hour standing next to a toilet.

I feel sorry for the commuters affected by the Southern Rail chaos, especially because I hail from Croydon and have experienced that mayhem firsthand. As if being from Croydon wasn’t bad enough. When I was growing up, and periodically going to India to visit my grandmother, my classmates would often ask me about the trains. There was an exotic fascination with people sitting on top of the carriages. v

I was once ejected from a Southern train for sitting in first class when the train was full. I informed the guard that, as the section was empty and I would have happily moved for people with first-class tickets, I didn’t see what the problem was. He said: “It’s far more serious than that – you have to keep that area clear in case people in wheelchairs get on.” I apologised and said: “I didn’t realise people in wheelchairs were allowed in that section.”

He replied: “Yeah – only if they have a first-class ticket. Otherwise we kick them off as well.”

Virgin Trains East Coast staff to strike in row over jobs

It’s interesting how far we have moved on in our attitude to renationalisation. In the 1980s and 1990s, we consistently elected governments that essentially based their economic policies on the boardgame Monopoly, where public services were flogged off to the highest bidder. We were in thrall to Rich Uncle Pennybags, the moustachioed, monocle-wearing mascot we now call Mr Monopoly. (This is clearly a terrible name, by the way. It’s like me changing my name to Grandpa Nishy Mouthjoker.)

But there has been a change in public opinion, if not in government policy. A 2015 poll revealed nearly 60% of us support public ownership of the railways. Last year, the East Coast service was reprivatised. The government had taken over the running of the line after the collapse of the previous private ownership and, in public control, it had become profitable to the Treasury and reported positive customer satisfaction. It is now run by Virgin Trains and, on Friday morning, staff announced strike action over two weekends in August. This means that I can’t get back to London from the Edinburgh Fringe. Once again, comedians are punished. Truly we are the most oppressed people in society.

Frustration with the trains is inevitable, given the daily difficulties commuters face. In France, a near fully publicly owned rail system managed to give its passengers fares far lower than the UK for almost exactly the same amount of public rail subsidy between 1996 and 2010. Furthermore, the French government has invested profits in private rail companies, which then invest in companies that run British trains. Including – surprise! – Southern. As we haemorrhage money, we are lining the pockets of Riche Oncle Sacs d’Argent.

Nationalisation might seem like the preserve of old-fashioned, duffel-coat-wearing, Red-Flag-singing socialists, but it also appears to be economically efficient. Labour adoped renationalisation as a policy at its 2015 autumn conference, and Jeremy Corbyn is trying to make this a key platform in his plans to be the next prime minister. Corbyn might be on to a winner here. Time will tell. Anyway, I had better head off – I’ve got to start booking some train tickets for October 2025.

George Osborne's 'Austerity begins at home' example

George Osborne raises standard in first-class train row

Treasury account of chancellor's aide finding ticket inspector to pay for upgrade on Virgin train contradicts reporter's version

• Robert Booth, Lizzy Davies and Rajeev Syal
• The Guardian, Friday 19 October 2012 20.36 BST

George Osborne is accused of 'great train snobbery' after journalist says aide told ticket inspector the chancellor 'could not possibly' sit in standard class but could not pay any extra.

George Osborne's face was fixed in a thin grin as he was jostled across platform two at Euston last night, but inside he must have known that a political bomblet had just gone off. Shortly after 5.17pm, as the chancellor alighted from the busy Virgin Pendolino train from Wilmslow, Cheshire, in his Tatton constituency, the reality of what had already been labelled Plebgate 2 became clear.

As Osborne's train rattled through the countryside an hour and a half earlier, a tale of apparent fare dodging by the chancellor – estimated to have a personal wealth of £4m – had emerged through Twitter.

Rachel Townsend, a correspondent for ITV's Granada Reports programme, had been travelling on the same train and tweeted: "Very interesting train journey to Euston. Chancellor George Osborne just got on at Wilmslow with a standard ticket and he has sat in first. His aide tells ticket collector he cannot possibly move and sit with the likes of us in standard class and requests he is allowed to remain in First Class. Ticket collector refuses."

Was it true? Had Osborne, moments before the Tory chief whip, Andrew Mitchell, was forced to resign for reportedly calling a policeman a pleb, really refused to sit in standard, triggering a story that was quickly labelled The Great Train Snobbery?

Virgin, which in August had to swallow the government's decision to remove its franchise for the west coast mainline, which Osborne had just used, confirmed that he had travelled in first class on a standard class ticket, initially at least.

"The chancellor, who was travelling in first class accommodation, held a standard class ticket," a spokesman for Virgin said. "As soon as the train left Wilmslow, an aide went to find the train manager to explain the situation and arrange to pay for an upgrade. It was agreed that the chancellor would remain in first class and an amount of £189.50 was paid by the aide to cover the upgrade for Mr Osborne and his PA. The situation was dealt with amicably between the train manager and George Osborne's aide. At no time was there a disagreement or a refusal to pay for the upgrade. Nor was there any discussion between the train manager and Mr Osborne."

It chimed with the Treasury's account. "The chancellor got a different train than planned due to diary change following a series of meetings in his constituency," a spokesman said. "As he had no seat reservation on the new train, which was crowded, he decided to upgrade – and obviously intended and was happy to pay. An aide sought out the train manager and paid the ticket upgrade."

But that clashed with what Townsend said. She told ITV: "Then his aide approached the ticket collector right next to me. He said he is travelling with George and he has a standard ticket but can he remain in first class? The guard said no. The aide said Osborne couldn't possibly sit in standard class. The guard replied saying if he wants to stay it's £160. The aide said he couldn't pay and he couldn't really sit in standard. The guard refused to budge. The guard went on gathering tickets and later told me Osborne had agreed to cough up the £160."

Fellow passengers were unimpressed with the reports. "Fair's fair. He should be saving the taxpayer money but definitely he shouldn't be sitting in first," said Justin Bateman, 34, a civil servant from Manchester. Keith Young, 60, a doctor from London, agreed. "Standard was busy and the chancellor would not have been able to sit alongside his aides, but he would have been able to occupy a single seat alongside the other passengers." He added: "It's one rule for them and one rule for us. He had no right to make a stand against paying an upgrade."

But even as the facts were still settling, Labour seized on the tale.

"Another day, another demonstration of how out of touch this government is," said Michael Dugher, the shadow Cabinet Office minister. "Just like Andrew Mitchell, George Osborne obviously thinks that it is one rule for him and another for the plebs he is so keen to sit apart from. So much for 'we are all in it together'."

As with Mitchell's rant at the Downing Street police, the spirit of Boris Johnson loomed. In Mitchell's case it was quickly pointed out that the mayor of London had once called for people who swear at police to be jailed. Now memories turned to the Tory darling's scathing attack last year on what he called the "parasitic scourge" of fare dodgers in London.

At a teeming rush-hour Euston, as Osborne's train was due to arrive in London, a feverish posse including Labour activists, the president and vice-president of the National Union of Students and assorted press were waiting to pounce. Officers from the Metropolitan police's specialist response unit pored over train timetables to try to work out which service the chancellor was on to make sure he was spirited away in safety.

"Are you embarrassed Mr Osborne?" shouted an anti-government activist who had rushed to the station after hearing the rumour about the chancellor.

As he was ushered across the platform by aides and security, the chancellor had very little to say. "I'm sure it will be, um …" was all he could tell the Guardian as he was shepherded through a security gate and past the bins towards a waiting government car.