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2010-11-09 03:19:03
Rail passengers in England and Wales face "substantial increases in already
unacceptable overcrowding levels" by 2014 and beyond, a report by MPs says.
Department for Transport plans suggest targets for increasing passenger places
will be missed.
It was "not clear to passengers" where money from fare rises went and firms
should be made to tackle overcrowding and not rely on subsidies, it added.
The government said plans to improve the situation would be unveiled soon.
Public Accounts Committee chairwoman Margaret Hodge said MPs were concerned
that the "already unacceptable levels of overcrowding will simply get worse and
ever more intolerable".
She added: "At present there is no incentive for the rail industry to supply
extra capacity without additional public subsidy.
"The DfT should, for future franchises, require operators to take measures
themselves to avoid overcrowding and to meet the costs of doing so."
Smart ticketing
The Department for Transport is 18 months into a five-year, 9bn investment
programme to improve rail travel.
Start Quote
We welcome the importance this report places on getting a seat as it recognises
the daily struggle faced by some passengers
End Quote Anthony Smith Passenger Focus
Under the plans longer platforms are being built and there will be more
carriages on services coming into London and other major cities during peak
hours.
But the Public Accounts Committee report says "this approach cannot go on
indefinitely" and "alternatives must be found to meet the capacity challenge in
the future".
It recommends that the DfT should require all new train carriages to be fitted
with automatic passenger counting equipment to show how many people are
travelling and when.
It also believes if more tickets were contained on smart cards, operators would
be able to use the information about passenger numbers to target overcrowding.
The government should "pursue and promote smart ticketing and other demand
management techniques to reduce the inefficiencies of overcrowding in peak
hours and underused rolling stock at other times", the committee added.
According to the report by 2014 there will be 15% fewer extra places delivered
in London in the morning peak and 33% fewer into other major cities. This
compares to the numbers the DfT stated would be needed just to hold
overcrowding at current levels.
The cross-party group of MPs highlighted parts of the South-eastern franchise,
where passengers paid premium fares to support the new high-speed Javelin
services "which do not stop at their stations and do little to alleviate
overcrowding on the trains they use".
They added there was concerned that the Office of Rail Regulation had been in
place for more than a decade but "had not succeeded in getting a grip on the
railway industry's efficiency".
'Wholesale review'
Anthony Smith, chief executive of rail customer watchdog Passenger Focus, said:
"We welcome the importance this report places on getting a seat as it
recognises the daily struggle faced by some passengers."
Start Quote
We have to reduce the costs of our railways, so that both taxpayers and
farepayers get a better deal
End Quote Philip Hammond Transport Secretary
Bob Crow, general secretary of the RMT union, described the report as a
"shocking indictment of the total failure of rail privatisation".
"Passengers are forced to pay through the nose to travel in obsolete and
overcrowded carriages while private train operating companies are laughing all
the way to the bank," he said.
Gerry Doherty, leader of the TSSA rail union, said: "Passengers face the worst
of all possible worlds - ever-rising fares on an overcrowded service with no
relief in sight."
He said coalition's plans to raise fares over the next five years would "force
many families off the railway".
In the government's Spending Review, it was announced that caps on regulated
rail fares - essentially those within peak hours - will rise to 3% above the
RPI rate of inflation for three years from 2012.
Responding to the Public Accounts Committee report, Transport Secretary Philip
Hammond said the increases would enable investment in capacity to continue and
details of the plans to reduce overcrowding would be unveiled in the coming
weeks.
But he added: "We currently have one of the most expensive railways in the
world, which is unfair on both farepayers and taxpayers, reflecting poor
incentives to control costs across the whole industry.
"As the committee rightly says, this situation is not sustainable. We have to
reduce the costs of our railways, so that both taxpayers and farepayers get a
better deal.
"That is why Sir Roy McNulty is leading a review into reducing rail industry
costs and why we have begun a wholesale review of rail franchising."