Rail privatisation sees fares massively outstrip living costs
Monday 04 February 2013
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EmailRail union TSSA warned today that fares on Britain's busiest routes have massively outstripped the cost of living since privatisation.
The union published a list of the biggest rises, saying a walk-on fare from London to Manchester had jumped by 208 per cent since the Tories sold off the rail network in 1995.
The London to Exeter fare has gone up 205 per cent and a Cardiff ticket 196 per cent while the retail price index was only 66 per cent higher.
TSSA general secretary Manuel Cortes said: "Private rail firms were given a licence to print money in the 1990s and they have been ripping off passengers ever since.
He said the figures "demolished" Tory claims that fares would get cheaper.
"What we have seen is little more than legalised daylight robbery on a grand scale."
But the Association of Train Operating Companies claimed the union had only looked at a handful of the most expensive fares.
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