Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate his Department has made of the passenger revenue that will be generated from the 3.8 per cent increase in rail fares due in March 2022.

The Department takes guidance from the Passenger Demand Forecasting Handbook on the effects of changes to fares on revenues. There are a number of factors which impact revenues including, most notably at the moment, the pandemic’s impact on passenger travel.

Whilst the change will affect each passenger slightly differently, the Department has a number of railcards in place that offer discounts against most rail fares. We have saved a generation of passengers at least a third off their fares through the 16-17 and 26-30 ‘millennial’ railcard and went even further in November 2020 by extending these savings to former servicemen and women through a new Veterans Railcard.