Passengers To Pay For Rail Improvements

RUTH Kelly’s extreme Catholic sect of choice, Opus Dei, enjoy a little self-flagellation. And it now seems that the new Transport Secretary wants commuters to share the pain.

In the new 30-year rail strategy, the Government sets out their plans to add 1,300 extra carriages, improve train punctuality, complete the Thameslink project and redevelop Birmingham New Street Station.

And the nation’s commuters will be forced to fund the new improvements by paying even higher fares. The Government plans to cut public funding for the railways by 50 per cent, or £1.5billion a year. Indeed, for the period 2009-14, passengers will pick up a whopping £39.2billion of the £66.4billion needed to run the railways.

Gerry Doherty of the TSSA white-collar union isn’t impressed. Says he: “Ministers claim they want to encourage rail travel and then kick passengers in the teeth with huge regular hikes in fares. They are pricing people off rail and on to the roads. This is the economics of the madhouse. They claim they want cheaper public transport and then do everything in their power to discourage it.”

Unfortunately, commuters have little choice but to grin and bear it all. Or they could take a ticker-inspector hostage and demand a better service. Just an idea…

Anorak

Posted: 25th, July 2007 | In: Money Comments (2) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink