The Reader: To justify fare rises, rail services must improve

Passengers try to board a South Western Railway train at Earlsfield train station during a strike late last year
PA
3 January 2020
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After a year of pretty poor performance, the rise in rail fares will be a bitter pill to swallow for passengers. Every year we speak to thousands of them, and less than half feel they get value for money. It’s time for a consistent service they can rely on.

Transport Focus has long called for a fares system that is simple to use and is flexible enough to cater to how people live and work today — such as by issuing part-time season tickets. The presence of cheaper fares that are “hidden” in the system damages trust. Commuters on South Western Railway who have suffered one of the longest rail strikes are now being hit with season ticket rises of up to almost £200. Passengers who have had to endure grim journeys deserve compensation that recognises the unprecedented extent of the disruption to their lives.

Meanwhile passengers should claim compensation every time they are delayed, to help offset the cost of the fares rise and to Make Delay Pay.
David Sidebottom, Director at watchdog Transport Focus

Editor's reply

Dear David
There are two issues here: an unreliable rail service and an increasingly expensive one.

On the first issue, would passengers prefer new trains or reliable trains? Ideally they’d get both, but resources are not infinite.

On the second, it has long been hard to defend the annual fares rise. Transport for London has shown it is possible to run a decent service (on rail, Overground and Tube) without increasing all fares annually. The national rail industry needs to learn lessons here. But the wider point is the scale of Government investment in the railways — about £12 per passenger per year.

London-bound commuters may be driven to despair by South Western Railways, Thameslink and Southern but let’s not pretend conditions are as bad as those on Northern or ScotRail. What we must guard against, though, is allowing fares to rise and services to deteriorate to the extent that travellers are forced back into their cars.
Ross Lydall, City Hall Editor

End New Year’s fireworks shows​

In 2020, London can lead the world in doing New Year differently. Using 15 tonnes of fireworks and creating toxic clouds and air goes against all the warnings that the Government, the mayor, scientists and Extinction Rebellion tell us about saving our planet. It sends the wrong message.

Cities need to think differently. If we need a spectacle that makes a statement and draws crowds, let’s have a light show synchronised to great music and bands. Fireworks are the past and an expensive and unnecessary thrill that has no place in the world we seek to save. If we want to lead the green world, then let’s do it. We need to show our commitment to our environment.
David Caillard

Internal study will not fix Labour​

If the police make a major mistake, one hopes that it will be investigated by an independent body and not by the police themselves. So why should we expect fairness from a study of their election failure chaired by prominent Labour Party members?

I recall a prominent study of anti-Semitism in the party that was chaired by a party member who later was elevated to a peer. Did this correct the problem? We had to wait three more years for an independent investigation by the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
Dr Robert Simon

Make the elderly a bigger priority​

The Government needs to place at the top of its social care agenda the neglect of millions of pensioners that Jeremy Hunt called a national disgrace as long ago as October 2013.

Five years later Theresa May admitted her Loneliness Strategy was “just the start of tackling this challenge” and granted it £20 million, followed by £2 million a year later.

Recognising that funding alone could not resolve this problem, the Loneliness Strategy included the elderly in the relationships education that all schools will be required to teach by September 2020.

The Education Department rejected its own proposal by omitting teaching relationships with the elderly and focusing solely on sex education in its Statutory Guidance on Relationships Education, issued in June 2019.

Boris Johnson should ensure that further guidance is issued redressing that omission and place the elderly at the top of his social care agenda by giving the Loneliness Strategy the priority and funding it deserves.
Trevor Lyttleton MBE, Founder and former chairman of Contact the Elderly

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