The government will hold a major inquiry next week into the inflation-busting increases in fares being forced on train passengers. The transport select committee will hold rail company bosses to account for the increases and will also want to know why, despite the increases, rail companies have cut back on services, taken many trains out of service, shortened others, reduced opening hours at ticket offices, and sacked staff.

This month has seen an average 6% rise in rush-hour fares, while many increases are in double digits, raising the cost of season tickets by hundreds of pounds. Commuters in the southeast are bearing the brunt of the increases, with peak-time fares rising an average 8% and off-peak fares going up around 11% (with some as high as 15%), amid warnings of even further increases.

Meanwhile the rail companies have raked in massive profits – Southeastern’s parent company had profits of £77.2 million for the year ending 28 June; First Group, parent company of First Capital Connect which runs Thameslink, had profits of £48.3 million for the six months to 20 September; Stagecoach, owner of South West Trains, had profits of £31.7 million for the six months to 31 October. To make matters worse, rail companies are taking advantage of government legislation which allows them to increase rush-hour fares by 1% above the July inflation rate (the month chosen to give the industry time to prepare tickets, modify dispensing machines and so on), by continuing to use last July’s rate of 5%, even though inflation has now fallen to below 1%.

This makes the escalating cost of annual season tickets for London’s commuters even more indefensible. Examples of the recent increases are London to Reading up 6% (to £3,257); Sevenoaks, up 8% (to £2,484); Gillingham, up 10.2% (to £2,740); Oxford, up 6% (to £4,125); Northampton, up 6.8% (to £4,148).

The Liberal Democrat transport spokesman Norman Baker revealed these increases on Monday, and also pointed out that some 62,000 trains were cancelled in 2008. He commented, “Not only do we have the most expensive railway in Europe, but passengers in Britain are expected to put up with tens of thousands of cancelled trains every year.”

Stephen Joseph, the executive director a pressure group Campaign for Better Transport, put it bluntly in saying that fares are so high that passengers are being “priced off” trains. Whatever attempt the rail bosses make to justify the fare increases and worsening services, passengers can only hope that the inquiry will result in the government taking strong measures to reverse the current trends being set by the rail companies to the detriment of passengers.

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