Green Party MEP Catherine Rowett has criticised the latest predicted rise in rail fares that will see prices for a season ticket from some locations in the East of England to London increase by nearly £200. (1)
Catherine Rowett said “The unrelentingly high cost of train travel is bonkers at a time when we should be making clean public transport available to everyone.”
Catherine Rowett pointed out that the rise in rail prices contrasts with a fall in the cost of flying.
“Privately run train companies say the price hikes are necessary to maintain standards, but while the real term cost of train fares has risen an average of 23% since 1997, the cost of air travel has gone down by 16%. It now costs less to fly from Stansted to Edinburgh – just £23.21 – than it does to get from pretty much anywhere in the East of England to London.
Catherine Rowett explained that so-called ‘hidden subsidies’ for the aviation industry, in the form of tax relief, have been as much as £10 billion per year, while people who rely on rail get no relief from rising prices.
She said, “Government subsidies to airlines overwhelmingly benefits the elites who fly frequently, while people who rely on rail struggle. That’s billions of pounds that could be invested in the zero-carbon public transport we desperately need at a time of climate emergency. It’s not just rail – people in rural areas are seeing cuts to bus services that leave them isolated.”
Catherine Rowett concluded by praising the example of the sixteen-year-old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, who is today setting sail to the US to make the point that flying should be avoided, even for long-haul flights.
She said, “While most people can’t afford to take two weeks out to sail to America, we also can’t afford to disincentivise sustainable transport as we are currently. We have to be imaginative in our approach to transport, like Greta, and focus on what will benefit people now and in the future.”