Southworst trains scandal

Press article today:

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2894101...kets-1-900-2010.html

The top-paid rail manager last year was Stagecoach chief executive Martin Griffiths, 48, who received £2.23million, including £22,000 in lieu of a company car.
His company runs East Midland Trains and South West Trains, which operates Britain's most crowded commuter service – the 7.32am Woking to Waterloo, on which travellers must now pay £3,052 for an annual season ticket.

- High rail fares are just part of commuting life, says transport minister as passengers are 'clobbered' with price hikes... and delays
- A record number will now pay £5,000-a-year for a season ticket into London
- Some passengers have seen prices rise by up to £1,900 since 2010
- Commuters struggled to work today because of delays and cancellations
- British are spending more of salary on rail travel than many Europeans
- Commuters also subsidising foreign railways with millions a year

Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin was today accused of telling passengers to 'like it or lump it' as rail fares rose again.
The senior Tory brushed aside complaints about ticket prices eating into incomes, insisting investment in the railways 'has to be paid for'
And he suggested that complaints about higher season tickets were misplaced because commuters know the price of commuting when they 'take that journey on'.
Season tickets rose by up to 2.5 per cent from today as hard-pressed commuters again suffered painful delays.

Green Party MP Caroline Lucas, who will join passengers at Brighton station on Monday to call for Britain's railways to be returned to public hands, said services over the Christmas period were typical of 'a system that has flatly failed'.
She added: 'Rail privatisation has become characterised by poor services, cramped trains and extortionate fares. It's ripping off passengers, harming the economy and failing the environment.'
A separate report from rail unions found that a typical British worker would spend 17 per cent of their monthly wage on a season ticket.
The equivalent figure for Germany is 9 per cent, France 12 per cent and Spain and Italy both 6 per cent.

Commuters complain of 'rip-off' rises that happen each year without fail
Union say hike is 'scandal' far outstripping average pay increases

Senior tories continue to dismiss opinions that do not agree with their own political dogma - forgetting perhaps that the reason train services exist is to serve passengers...Train services that are nationalised in other EU countries run much more efficiently, and at lower ticket prices.

BTW where are the twelve coach trains, now the station platforms have been lengthened in readiness ?