Those of us who believe that public transport is a core part of strong public service provision will have groaned inwardly at the reaction of a Department for Transport press officer to the idea that ever-rising fares may not be sustainable in the long-term.
“The reality is that six per cent of the population travels on railways. Why should people who don’t use the railways regularly fund people who do?” was the Department’s response to complaints from watchdog PassengerFocus.
This remark may simply have been an off-the-cuff rejoinder, but it betrays a worrying trend in thinking that rail travel is a luxury, not a public good which contributes to the health and wealth of the country.
The comment came just before the Government published its rail white paper, ‘Delivering Sustainable Transport’. Commentators were quick to pick up on the fact that the Government sees its share of support for the industry falling – from around half the total rail budget at the moment to nearer a quarter by 2014.
Implicit in the white paper’s analysis is a hefty rise in fares. Revenue from passengers is set to grow by 80 percent, but passenger numbers are only expected to rise by a little over 20 percent.
Now, it would be wrong to suggest that the DfT is oblivious to growing public and media criticism on fares. The white paper makes clear that, contrary to the wishes of some operators, the regulated ‘Saver’ fare won’t be scrapped. Indeed, it proposes a massive simplification of the current labyrinth of fares into four clear categories and a clear legal commitment that train operators should always offer the cheapest fare to passengers.
Of course, many fares are regulated, where the Government says how much the price of these tickets can rise (although in all recent franchises this has been at least one percent above inflation).
But – as with other modes of transport – we risk losing political perspective on the impact of rising fares.
In electoral terms, there is the obvious threat of Labour getting the blame for operators’ failings. We have already seen commuter revolt, particularly on First Great Western’s trains. While the complaints here are primarily about reliability and capacity, even a regulated increase in the cost of season tickets won’t go down well. These are not just Home Counties commuters; but will make Labour MPs from Reading, Oxford, Bristol, Cardiff and Swansea start to sweat.
Even rail union TSSA has deftly shifted from a producer perspective in its recent pronouncements, taking the side of passengers by criticising rail fares and even taking one operator to the Competition Commission and the OFT.
Political positioning aside, there are good progressive reasons for thinking about rail as a social good.
The environmental imperative of keeping our railways affordable is clear. In total, transport accounts for a quarter of the UK’s carbon emissions; rail’s share of this national total is just one per cent. The government’s transport policy has clearly moved people out of their cars; but this modal shift is fragile and could be reversed if price becomes too great a barrier.
Of equal importance, in terms of social justice, rail travel cannot become the preserve of the wealthy. Rail has a strong social inclusion role – more than half of the population do not have a family member living within an hours’ travel time. For the 27% of households who do not have access to a car, rail is the only realistic alternative for journeys over a few miles in length.
Nor can we allow an industry preoccupation with high-speed links and maximising long-distance first-class business travel to blind us to the daily reality that thousands of ordinary people in our cities rely on rail to get to and from work. Even in London, there as many trips made every day by rail as there are by tube.
Using the number of actual journeys undertaken as a yardstick, almost half of all rail users are in social groups C, D and E. This figures rises to 60% of all journeys on regional rail services. Yet in debates at party conference about structure and ownership, the casual observer might think that Labour has forgotten how important rail is to promoting social inclusion and mobility.
In its white paper the Government gave a welcome commitment to ensuring rail has a long-term future, not least by being realistic in its plans to increase capacity on a network which at some points is bursting at the seams. But we cannot afford to ignore the political and social perils of making passengers foot the bill for a better railway.