Passenger fury at ticket hikes on East Coast Main Line

Nov 17 2009 by Adrian Pearson, The Journal

PASSENGER groups reacted with anger last night after it emerged some fares on the renationalised East Coast rail line are to increase.

From January passengers looking online to find an advance ticket will see fares soar, while Government-regulated season tickets and saver fares are reduced.

Next year rail companies nationwide will be forced to restrict the amount they can increase certain regulated tickets after inflation fell to historic lows, with some fares coming down.

But rail bosses have stopped short of passing the savings on to all their customers, with many train operating companies looking to recoup the loss through fare hikes elsewhere.

Tickets such as those found online for journeys weeks away, or even cheap day returns, will be targeted as companies look to offset other reductions.

Last night East Coast railways refused to say what their top-end price increases would be, insisting the average fare rise amounted to a 1.9% hike in unregulated fares, and a 0.4% decrease in some season tickets.

Asked to comment on claims yesterday that East Coast would put up some advance purchase tickets by 5%, the rail firm said it had chosen its new ticket prices but did not want to make them public at present.

Passenger groups have said unregulated fares – including cheap day returns and advance purchase tickets – must now come under greater Government scrutiny to prevent rail bosses simply moving fare increases from one set of commuters to another.

“We need to be much more vigilant against these sort of practices,” said Ian Walker, of North East passenger group Rail Future.

“In particular the Department for Transport needs to be watching out for this because right now it looks like they have turned their back and allowed rail operators to do what they want with unregulated fares.”

And tourism bosses have called on the Government to be wary of the wider impact of pushing up rail fares during the recession.