Rail fares in England and Wales rise 4.9% on Sunday

Rail fares in England and Wales will rise by 4.9% on Sunday, adding hundreds of pounds to the annual cost of travel for many commuters.

Campaigners said passengers would be “angry” at the latest price increase – which is above the current inflation rate of 4 per cent – although the government argued it had taken significant intervention to hold down fare increases.

Ministers said the decision was a “search for a balance” with rail revenue still about 20% below pre-pandemic levels and rail requiring more public subsidy than usual.

However, the increase contrasts with policy in London, where tube and bus fares will be frozen for another year. The capital will also introduce cheaper peak-time travel next week, with Friday peak fares scrapped.

Passenger rail groups have warned that continued rises in rail fares – up 5.9% in March 2023, the biggest rise in a decade – are driving people away from rail to roads, with real cuts in petrol duties frozen by more than a decade of inflation.

Campaign group Rail Futures said passengers were “punished year after year with inflation-busting fare increases”. Its chairman, Chris Page, said: “Whether there’s a cost of living crisis, a climate emergency, the government seems more determined than ever to get us from rail to road.”

Analysis by the Campaign for Better Transport shows the price increase would add more than £300 to annual tickets on popular commuter routes, including Canterbury or Brighton to London, and nearly £150 from Macclesfield to Manchester or York to Leeds.

Spokesman Michael Solomon Williams said: “The public will be angry at finding trains becoming more expensive when we desperately need to encourage people to take them.”

“Meanwhile, fuel duty has been frozen for 13 years, which means the government has given up £100 billion… If the government is serious about encouraging people to take trains and meet our net zero emissions targets, it is rail fares that should be adjusted, and Not the gas tax. It’s frozen.”

Johnbosco Nwogbo, of public ownership campaign group We Own It, said the cost of rail travel had increased significantly since privatization. “Under public ownership we can save enough money to reduce [rail fares] 18% instead of 4.9%,” he added.

The Department for Transport declined to comment again, but Transport Secretary Mark Harper said when he first announced UK retail price increases in December that the figure was well below the 9% RPI figure for July 2023, which would have traditionally been The RPI figure used by the UK government is an annual increase set by the government.

He said taxpayers provided £12bn of support for the railways last year and the increase “struck a balance between keeping the railways running without placing an undue burden on passengers”.

Transport for Wales followed suit last month, announcing that fares would also rise by 4.9% from 3 March. From April, fares in Scotland will rise by 8.7%, although ScotRail fares rose by a smaller 3.8% last year.

One-way London Underground, Overground and bus fares will be frozen, but daily fare caps for multiple journeys will increase.

TfL will also start a three-month trial next week, with Friday journeys treated as off-peak throughout the day, with the recovery in passenger numbers following the coronavirus pandemic far lower than on other days. The £24m pilot project will reduce the cost of peak hour Tube journeys from London’s outer suburbs by £2 to £3.60, Mayor of London Sadiq Khan announced.

Khan said: “Encouraging more people to return to the city on Friday could give the hospitality, business and leisure sectors a much-needed boost. So my appeal to all Londoners: help London continue its recovery – let’s do it on Friday .”