Grant Shapps pledges commuters will be spared 12% rail fare hike

2022-08-15

Commuters will be spared 12% rail fare hike amid fears of yet another squeeze on hard-hit families

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps ruled out any price hikes until March 2023
Rail travellers faced a record 12 per cent increase on some fares last March
Annual rise based on previous July’s retail price index (RPI) measure of inflation
Season ticket from Reading to London for a year would go up by £600 to £5,644

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps will spare commuters double-digit rail fare hikes next year, he pledged yesterday.

Rail travellers were facing a record 12 per cent increase for some fares, including season tickets, in March.

The annual rise is based on the previous July’s retail price index (RPI) measure of inflation, which is due to be announced on Wednesday.

It is expected to increase 0.1 percentage points to 11.9 per cent, according to the research firm Capital Economics.

If fares went up this much, the cost of a 12-month season ticket would go up by £600 to £5,644 for Reading to London, by £685 to £6,450 for Colchester to London and by £212 to £1,996 for Runcorn to Liverpool.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has pledged to rule out double-digit rail price hikes which would see a London to Reading annual season ticket go up by £600 to £5,644

The rise would be almost double the previous record increase and the biggest hike for regulated fares since privatisation in 1993.

But yesterday a Department for Transport spokesman said: ‘The Government will not increase fares as much as the July RPI figure.

‘We are delaying the increase to March 2023, temporarily freezing fares for January and February to help struggling households.’

No decision has been made on the percentage increase fares will rise by.

The exact percentage will depend on negotiations with the Treasury.

The annual hike used to happen on New Year’s Day but has been postponed until March since the Covid-19 pandemic.

The rise, which was 3.8 per cent this year, applies to regulated fares only.

Almost half of all fares are regulated, including commuter season tickets, some off-peak return tickets on long distance journeys, anytime tickets around big cities and saver returns.

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