Railway Report: Off-Peak Fares Face Hike

Passengers travelling off-peak face fare hikes as a drastic transformation of the rail system is proposed to save up to £1bn.

A review led by former Civil Aviation Authority chairman Sir Roy McNulty has called for a 30% improvement in efficiency by 2019.

"A reduction of this magnitude is achievable, and is essential if passengers and taxpayers are to get the fair deal they deserve from the rail industry," he said.

While the plans do not suggest an overall price increase, they do mean "rebalancing" fares, and it will be the off-peak travellers who are set to suffer.

Rail customer watchdog Passenger Focus said the changes represented a "leap in the dark".

"All the experience, all the history shows there will be more losers than winners," said chief executive Anthony Smith.

"Affordable, flexible travel for longer journeys will be confined to a brief window in the middle of the day."

The report outlines 10 main barriers to efficiency.

As well as the fare structure, they include the rail franchise system, the Government's role in the railways and also what is being described as "excessive wage drift and inefficient working practices".

"The overall trend to reduce continually the length of the working day and the working week is unsustainable," said Sir Roy.

"It is imperative on the industry to give taxpayers and passengers a better deal than they are getting at the moment."

News that some front-line staff will lose their jobs has prompted anger from the Rail, Maritime and Transport Union.

"Attacking staff, ticket offices and jacking up fares, while the train operators are handed gold-plated franchises, is just an escalation of all the worst practices of privatisation," said the RMT's general secretary Bob Crow.

"Blaming loyal, hard-working rail staff for the gross inefficiencies of breaking up the industry for profit is of course an attack that the RMT will resist."

Commuters travelling to and from Norwich station had mixed views about the proposed job losses.

"It's always been the easy option to cut staff but what they need to do is train the staff to be more efficient," said one man.

But, said another, "I think if it improves efficiency, that's fine. I would not have a problem with that."

The review also highlights the need for train operating companies and Network Rail, which controls the infrastructure, to work much more closely to improve efficiency.

Some train operators will even become responsible for their own section of track.