Railways: Fares

(asked on 6th January 2022) - View Source

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the cost to passengers of the 3.8 per cent increase in rail fares due in March 2022.


Answered by
Wendy Morton Portrait
Wendy Morton
This question was answered on 11th January 2022

Rail fares increases will be capped and tied to the Retail Price Index (RPI) figure for July 2021 (3.8 per cent). The Government has deliberately continued to use the July figure as it was lower than the months since, as an August or September RPI figure would have led to a 4.8 per cent or 4.9 per cent change with October being even higher at 6 per cent. In addition, as with 2021, we have temporarily frozen fares for passengers to travel at the lower price for the entirety of January and February 2022, with fares changing on 1 March 2022.

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

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