Topic ID 2274
The 2007 fare increases have been announced. Regulated fares (which include season tickets), up 4.3% on both FCC and One. Unregulated fares (cheap day returns etc) up 3.5% on FCC and 5.0% on One.
Reply ID 31496
So that works out just under a hundred quid extra for a standard season ticket. Ouch.
Reply ID 31789
you can always read the previous posts on how to save yourselves £600 on season tickets by buying 2 seperate tickets instead of the standard one
Reply ID 33155
Cheap Day Return to London Terminals from Hertford is up from £8 to £8.50 = 6.25% increase [:0] Peak Return is up to £11.80 from £11.40 = 3.5% Increase Anybody care to tell me why Our trains are the most expensive and worst in Western Europe?
Reply ID 33156
Because for the last 50 years they have been run by civil servants who couldn't tell a railway carriage from a stickle brick.
Reply ID 33157
quote:Decades of under-investment by successive goverments and a botched privatisation.
Originally posted by jez_p
Anybody care to tell me why Our trains are the most expensive and worst in Western Europe?
Reply ID 33223
Astonishingly my season ticket - Hertford North to Bowes Park - has gone down in price by about a quid. Just how incompetent are our train operators? When they want to put their prices up, they accidentally reduce them. I will obviously be complaining to their head office. [;)]
Reply ID 33225
quote:Very true. French trains have a heavy subsidy, despite having successfully introduced "payage" on the roads. Almost no European countries were mad enough to privatise railways. Just one of many examples of eighties British madness that, sadly, is still is with us.[:(!]
Originally posted by Stevequote:Decades of under-investment by successive goverments and a botched privatisation.
Originally posted by jez_p
Anybody care to tell me why Our trains are the most expensive and worst in Western Europe?
Reply ID 33273
The ridiculous thing is that FCC pay a premium to the Treasury for their franchise and this sounds really good (private operator not needing subsidy etc etc) until you realise that it is our higher fares that are paying this premium. So effectively you are paying a tax for using the FCC railway services because the franchisee won the bid with an over inflated offer. Incidentally what other franchise allows you to intoduce your own rules about pricing, your own corporate identity etc etc. A true franchise would see operators running a properly regulated service with uniform standards and conditions. Even more radically it could all be operated by one organisation called something like British Rail and run as a public sector service, but that would be daft wouldn't it?
Reply ID 33294
quote:
Originally posted by Andrew
The ridiculous thing is that FCC pay a premium to the Treasury for their franchise and this sounds really good (private operator not needing subsidy etc etc) until you realise that it is our higher fares that are paying this premium. So effectively you are paying a tax for using the FCC railway services because the franchisee won the bid with an over inflated offer. Incidentally what other franchise allows you to intoduce your own rules about pricing, your own corporate identity etc etc. A true franchise would see operators running a properly regulated service with uniform standards and conditions. Even more radically it could all be operated by one organisation called something like British Rail and run as a public sector service, but that would be daft wouldn't it? Absolutely spot on with the last sentence Andrew.
Reply ID 33330
If the government is serious about encouraging people to use greener forms of travel, then it should be using some of the extortionate fuel taxes to subsidise busses and trains, not asking train companies to pay them. Also I noticed today the performance stats for FCC on the wall at Hertford North! The headline figure that was highlighted was below 80% (this may well include the Thameslink route but it is still poor)
Reply ID 33332
Also it is now cheaper to get a Monthly Season to London Terminals than to get a ticket to Bowes Park plus 3 Zone Travelcard, but you can still save £70 over the price of a Travelcard Season. Monthly to London Terminals = £198.20 Monthly to Bowes Park + Travelcard = £103.70 + £105.30 = £209 Hertford to All zones Monthly Travelcard = £282.70 Weekly prices for FCC are not available online
Reply ID 33337
I've lost count of the number of years (decades) my season ticket has gone up above inflation - and the service has simply got worse! The railway companies get away with using the same lame excuses year after year because we do not complain enough! It wouldn't happen in France!