| Re: Regulated rail fares frozen in England until March 2027 Posted by grahame at 19:18, 23rd November 2025 |     |
Simon Calder, writing on the fares changes and some possible consequences in the Independent. Also, his article makes some play on Didcot - Swindon being the most expensive main line leg in the UK, not sure if that's the cost with respect to time on the train perhaps.
There's your answer, in the articlea boggling £2.20 per minute, making it the most expensive main line train trip in Britain
- basing it on pence per minute.Ther are more expensive fares off the mainline ... I can't imagine anyone buying this:
| Re: Regulated rail fares frozen in England until March 2027 Posted by Ralph Ayres at 17:15, 23rd November 2025 | |
A freeze - or at least its end - could have been an opportunity to reset the annual increase back to the slightly more logical early January rather than a completely random date in March, which was only chosen the first time as it was about the earliest the rail industry could reliable manage to change the data once the government of the time decided to end the pandemic fares freeze. After that it was impossible to move back to January as two (main) fares increases within 10 months wouldn't have been politically acceptable.
Specifically promising a freeze till March 2027 has blown that or the even better alternative of aligning with a timetable change date. Looks like we're stuck with March for the foreseeable future.
| Re: Regulated rail fares frozen in England until March 2027 Posted by ChrisB at 14:57, 23rd November 2025 | |
Simon Calder, writing on the fares changes and some possible consequences in the Independent. Also, his article makes some play on Didcot - Swindon being the most expensive main line leg in the UK, not sure if that's the cost with respect to time on the train perhaps.
There's your answer, in the article
a boggling £2.20 per minute, making it the most expensive main line train trip in Britain
- basing it on pence per minute.Mick Whelan, general secretary of train drivers’ union Aslef, said: ‘We are pleased that after 14 years of the Tories pricing people off our railways, this Labour government is helping people to commute to work and travel for pleasure.”
Labour started theis abnnual RPI% raise.....and I'm betting that Mick is saying to the taxpayer that they can all pay for his members pay rise this year, rather than just the rail users....oh yes, Calder agrees....
from what is, in effect, a decision to make long-suffering taxpayers pay even more to keep the trains running – even though many of them never go near a train.
| Re: Regulated rail fares frozen in England until March 2027 Posted by Mark A at 13:28, 23rd November 2025 | |
Simon Calder, writing on the fares changes and some possible consequences in the Independent. Also, his article makes some play on Didcot - Swindon being the most expensive main line leg in the UK, not sure if that's the cost with respect to time on the train perhaps.
Mark
https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/rail-fare-freeze-analysis-rachel-reeves-budget-train-tickets-b2870286.html
| Re: Regulated rail fares frozen in England until March 2027 Posted by ellendune at 13:24, 23rd November 2025 | |
I'm a bit confused at to what counts as a regulated fare. Anytime return fares are to rise by, is it 4.7% - and if someone needs to travel urgently those fares can be their only option.
Regulated fares in the former Network South East area are different to the rest of the country. In the NSE area are the anytime fares regulated or the day returns or both?
In the rest of the country the saver fares are regulated.
Are season tickets regulated in both?
Please somone correct me if I am wrong.
| Re: Regulated rail fares frozen in England until March 2027 Posted by Mark A at 13:13, 23rd November 2025 | |
I'm a bit confused at to what counts as a regulated fare. Anytime return fares are to rise by, is it 4.7% - and if someone needs to travel urgently those fares can be their only option.
Mark
| Regulated rail fares frozen in England until March 2027 Posted by JayMac at 23:20, 22nd November 2025 | |
There will be no fares price rise early next year, with prices of regulated fares, such as season tickets and off peak returns, frozen at their current levels until March 2027.
I suspect this is one sop to the electorate ahead of the budget.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwygx71g3n7o
