Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the effect on (a) passenger numbers and (b) revenue as a result of the 3.8 per cent rise in rail fare prices, implemented on 1 March 2022.
The Department uses recommendations from the Passenger Demand Forecasting Handbook on the relationship between changes to fares and demand and 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, we have 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.
We have protected passengers by delaying these fare rises by two months and, even then, opting for a figure well below current inflation rates.