Rail fare rises: Passengers vent fury as unreliable service continues

‘There has been no improvement, the trains have become busier and less reliable,’ says one Northern rail commuter

“Unfortunately we have no estimate for the line to reopen or a normal service to resume,” East Midlands Trains told passengers at London St Pancras on Friday.

On the day the rail industry revealed that train fares will rise in the New Year by 3.1 per cent, travellers on the Midlands main line to Sheffield learned that “a major signalling failure in the St Albans city area” had scuppered their travel plans for the foreseeable future.

The latest failure in the nation’s rail infrastructure wrecked the journeys of tens of thousands of passengers on East Midlands Trains, and many more on the Thameslink route through central London – who also had to contend with disruption caused by the 12.52pm from St Albans to Sutton “blocking platform one at London Blackfriars for approximately 20 minutes”.

Passengers on Thameslink, along with Northern Rail in northwest England, bore the brunt of the botched introduction of new timetables in May, which caused the cancellation of 5,000 trains.

Yet the Rail Delivery Group (RDG) insisted: “While further improvement is always needed, services are far better than they were 20 years ago.”

In an online “explainer” about rail fares, the organisation representing train operators and Network Rail said: “Local communities are enjoying over 600 revitalised stations. We are running 4,000 more trains every day – an increase of almost a third.”

The travelling public seem unconvinced. Three out of five of the 325 self-selecting respondents to a one-hour Twitter poll conducted for The Independent said services were no better than 20 years ago.

Of the remainder, almost half said that while some services had improved, theirs had not.

The response on social media to news of the January fares rise – and the rail industry’s assertion of services being “far better” – was overwhelmingly scathing.

Mike Alcock tweeted: “Getting better? It is not. GTR [Govia Thameslink Railway] are an absolute shambles. Being charged even more for a terrible service is a complete p*** take.”

A Northern Rail commuter, “Sammy P”, tweeted: “I’ve been commuting into Manchester from Horwich now for nearly 10 years. My first monthly ticket cost £70. It is now £104.

“There has been no improvement, the trains have become busier and less reliable.”

“Maybe the train operators are just getting more delusional?” posited Bill Swan of Rye in East Sussex.

David Hatcher, who lives in the Epsom & Ewell constituency of transport secretary Chris Grayling, said: “Those responsible for the problems need to suffer the consequences of their incompetence personally before they will actually improve performance.

“Responsibility is far too diffuse at the moment.”

Darren Ashton described the transport secretary as “a silent partner” and asked: “Where is Chris Grayling in all of this? Still in hiding?”

The RDG accepted that “the current system is under severe strain”, saying: “Partly due to the successes in increasing services and boosting passenger numbers, we now have one of the most congested railways in Europe.

“The smallest delay can have a huge ripple effect. At the same time, we’ve been rebuilding the network to reduce congestion and create the space to run even more services. It’s necessary but disruptive work – like renovating your home while you’re still living in it.”

Commuters at London Bridge, one of the capital’s busiest rail hubs, endured years of dislocation as the station was reconstructed. They should now be reaping the rewards of a £1bn Network Rail project that fully re-opened at the start of this year – on the same day as fares rose by 3.4 per cent.

But Christa Grover, who lives in Grove Park in southeast London, said: “My train is late every day, three to four minutes going home.

“I know it’s not much but if you add it up it ends up being a lot.”

She called the 2019 fares rise “ridiculous – I don’t think we get what we pay for”.

Rail passengers reliant on the Northern franchise in northwest England are preparing for the latest strike by members of the RMT union.

A dispute over driver-only operation has dragged on for much of the year. Stoppages are planned for every Saturday in December.

It briefly appeared that some progress was possible after the train operator invited the RMT to talks at the government body ACAS.

But Northern refused to accede to the union’s demand of “an absolute guarantee that no trains will run without the second member of staff on board”.

The RMT general secretary, Mick Cash, said the strike would go ahead. Seven out of 10 Northern services on 1 December will be cancelled.

Mr Cash also weighed in on the fare rise announcement, saying: “The only solution to Britain’s rail fare rip-off is a publicly owned railway run solely in the public interest free from the greed of the private train companies.”

Nick Redmayne tweeted: “I remember British Rail, and find it hard to believe re-nationalisation would help. However, there must be a better balance between profit for shareholders (or whoever) and service for taxpaying travellers.”

The Rail Delivery Group’s view is: “We believe the partnership approach – public and private working together – is right, but we need to structure that relationship to truly unlock the best of both parts.”

At London Bridge, passenger Christa Grover shrugged when asked what could be done to improve the railways: “It seems to be impossible. I’m not sure exactly what they can do.”

The man whose job it is to prescribe improvements is Keith Williams, the former British Airways boss who is to lead what the government claims will be the most significant review of rail since privatisation.

Back at St Pancras, shortly after 5pm, East Midlands Trains announced that the fault at St Albans had been fixed. But the operator warned: “Only a very limited service will run, as some trains and train crew have been displaced.”

Meanwhile, the Rail Delivery Group is promising more than 7,000 new carriages by 2021 and hundreds more trains refurbished as new. It said these would deliver “extra journey choices, more frequent services and more space on trains”.