💾 Archived View for gmi.noulin.net › mobileNews › 2557.gmi captured on 2024-08-25 at 06:19:22. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
⬅️ Previous capture (2024-05-10)
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
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."