TRAIN fare hikes could turn commuters back to their cars, a rail campaign group has warned.
The Department for Transport has announced that rail fares will increase next January by an average of 8%.
But the Huddersfield-Penistone-Sheffield Rail Users’ Association (HPSRUA) has attacked the planned above inflation rise as “one increase too far”.
The group had previously backed fare rises as necessary for investment to the network.
But after several consecutive years of above inflation increases, it has hit out at another planned rise for Huddersfield passengers.
HPSRUA chairman, Peter Marshall, said West Yorkshire passengers were being hit twice as local rail chiefs imposed above-inflation hikes to pay for extra carriages in 2006.
He said: “We have backed them in the past, but this year it’s just gone too far.
“The additional increase of 2% for West Yorkshire fares on top of the Government’s proposed 8% will not bring any benefit to passengers on our line.
“I think it’s inevitable people will consider it’s too much to pay for what is essentially the same service they’ve been getting for years, and thus, they will go back to their cars.
“The Department for Transport ignored the rising demand for rail travel in the north when the franchises were issued and now they have the cheek to say we must pay more for the same overcrowded and date-expired trains. “The additional carriages announced recently for Northern Rail are now 20 years old, and some of them are the Pacer trains we got rid of 10 years ago coming back to haunt us!
“Our route has once again become the Cinderella Line of the north.”
Metro chairman, Clr James Lewis, said: “When Metro agreed to the above inflation increase to local rail fares in 2006, it was so that Northern Rail could lease extra carriages for West Yorkshire and relieve some of the overcrowding on our local services.
“But the Government's additional increase means that West Yorkshire passengers are being punished twice.
“They have to pay the extra 3% on top of what was agreed but will not benefit proportionally from additional carriages or services, because London and the south east receive four times as much transport funding than the north of England.”
David Sidebottom, director of rail watchdog Passenger Focus, said: “The way that train companies are allowed to set fares on individual routes is deeply unfair.
“Some passengers, who may have seen no investment or improvements, can get hit year after year.”
But David Mapp, commercial director at the Association of Train Operating Companies, said: “We know that these are difficult financial times for many people.
“The Government has decided that many fares need to rise above inflation for the next three years to help pay for more trains, better stations and faster services.”
