Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate his Department has made of the potential increase in revenue from passengers in respect of the forthcoming increase in rail fares of 3.8 per cent.

The Department takes guidance from the Passenger Demand Forecasting Handbook on the effect of changes to fares on rail demand and revenues.

No analysis has been made on the yield management of the maximum cap set for regulated fares increases for March 2022. While fares changes affect total industry revenue there are also a number of other impacts that affect it. This includes, most notably at the moment, the pandemic’s impact on passenger travel and train operators have the capacity to price many fares more flexibly to maximise commercial revenues.