Rail companies’ fare rises to be capped

The rail industry’s power to increase fares in England is to be curbed as part of a government drive to overhaul the rail fare system.

Until now, some regulated fares could potentially have gone up by 9.1% next January.

They will now be capped at 6.1%.

When I first read about this I thought great finally the government have stepped in and acknowledged that the rail companies have been taking the proverbial piss for quite a while with commuters, and now they’ve realised that and they’re going to stop them, then I carried on reading and . . . . . .

So fare rises will be capped at 6.1% down from a possible 9.1% so essentially the government are still allowing the rail companies to essentially rob us blind, all they’ve done is say you can still do what you were doing just reign it in slightly.

When the fares go up in January it will be the 11^th year in a row that they have gone up by more than the rate of inflation, and what have the rail companies done with all this extra cash because they certainly haven’t spent it on the railways.

It is now so expensive to travel on trains, particularly long distance, it’s now cheaper to go everywhere by car, it’s so stupid that that has been allowed to happen.

Ed Miliband and Labour have faced a lot of criticism during their three years in opposition, but their plan to prevent rail companies from increasing their fares beyond 1% above inflation, is much better than the one the government have come up with.