Lord Adonis: Labour is on the side of rail passengers |

Wednesday 11th January 2012 | 18:14

Lord Adonis: Labour is on the side of rail passengers

Writing exclusively for PoliticsHome, Lord Adonis says David Cameron had 'no basis' for suggesting that his policy to remove fare flexibility was temporary, and accuses the Government of being 'on the side of train companies'.

It is no surprise that rail fare increases today flared into a political storm. For hard pressed commuters, they have long been a serious grievance.

A particular grievance has been the right of train companies, since privatisation, to increase individual fares way above the RPI+1 formula which applies to annual fare increases on average. This year, some fares have risen by up to 11 per cent in consequence, at a time of stagnant wages.

It was precisely to tackle this issue that, when I became Transport Secretary in 2009, I scrapped the fares flexibility. RPI+1 became a cap not an average. I also did this because the system for averaging fare increases was far from transparent and I wasn't convinced that train companies were not gaming the system at passengers' expense.

The ending of the flexibility was strongly opposed by the train companies, but they complied and it was highly popular with passengers. It cost the taxpayer nothing. It was my firm intention to continue the policy for subsequent years, and David Cameron has no basis for suggesting otherwise. There was a perfectly good reason for acting a year at time: I was advised that the rail companies might seek to sue the government for loss of the flexibility, and this risk would be minimised by removing the flexibility for one year in the first instance.

Indeed, this is what I told MPs in 2009: “In a time of economic stringency, I do not think it acceptable for individual commuters to face significant above-average fare increase. The Government’s intention is, therefore, that in future the cap should apply to individual regulated fares, not just to the average of each fares basket.”

I was mystified when Philip Hammond, my successor, reinstated the fares flexibility. The only people who supported this change were the train companies.

It is the job of ministers to be on the side of the travelling public. Labour took this seriously, which is why we scrapped the fares flexibility. By contrast, the present government appears to be on the side of the train companies. There was no other reason for acting as they did in allowing train companies to increase their fares by so much.

Lord Adonis, Former Labour Transport Secretary

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Lord Adonis: Labour is on the side of rail passengers

Writing exclusively for PoliticsHome, Lord Adonis says David Cameron had 'no basis' for suggesting that his policy to remove fare flexibility was temporary, and accuses the Government of being 'on the side of train companies'.

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