Rail fares increased by 3.8% today, the steepest price increase since January 2013.
In July 2021, the Government announced that the cap on rail fare increases throughout England and Wales would match the Retail Prices Index (RPI), a move that have moved campaign group Railfuture into accusing the UK Government of ‘stoking the fire of the cost of living crisis.’
A 3.8% rise in the cost of an annual season ticket from Swindon to London has risen £3,233 since 2010.
Rail Minister Chris Heaton-Harris said the 3.8% cap was a ‘fair balance’ when the fare increase was announced in December last year, while Labour has condemned the increase as “brutal”
Shadow Transport Secretary, Louise Haigh MP said: “This brutal Tory fare hike will be a nightmare for millions of passengers.”
“Families are already facing the Conservatives’ tax-rises and surging bills, and will now be clobbered with yet another eye-watering rise in the cost of the commute.“
“People up and down this country are paying the price for a crisis in living standards made in Downing Street.”
Leader of Swindon Labour Group, Jim Grant said: “A 3.8% increase for Swindon rail commuters at a time when inflation is nearly 6% , national insurance in going up by 1.2% and council tax by 3% is a real kick in the teeth.
“That rail fares from Swindon to Paddington have gone up by 49% in the last 10 years is a disgrace. The people of Swindon continue to pay more yet always seem to get less under this government.”
