Today, rail fare rises of over 4% were announced for January. This is the average and will be more for some commuters: newspapers like the Independent remind us that in January this year, some fares rose by significantly more.
One of the many assumptions which underlie the HS2 Ltd’s business case for a new high speed railway railway is that ticket prices on HS2 trains will be the same as on conventional speed trains. This was confirmed at the recent the High Speed Rail (Preparation) Bill committee evidence session by Alison Munro, CEO of HS2 Ltd.
It’s worth looking at what actually happened in the areas where HS1 was built not borne out by reality: this commenter on the Kent online website describes her family’s experience
I believe my husband pays for one of the highest season tickets in the country (HS1 from canterbury). What annoys me is that they 1/reduced the services on the slower routes. It actually takes him the same time to get to work on HS1 and tube as it used to on the slower lines, but they don’t run the trains at useful times any more and the journey times all increased, in my opinion, to push people to use the fast trains. 2/ the fast train is regularly late, spending ages connecting at Ashford, which means he doesn’t actually get the service he pays over the odds for. He’s a civil servant so he’s not exactly earning big bucks – I think a lot of people assume that commuters all earn £200k in the city or something. Another increase will cripple us. The whole thing makes my blood boil!