3rd Jan: National day of action against fare rises!

[whole diary]

[Chris from Nailsea]

From the Sunday Express:

THOUSANDS JOIN RAIL FARES REVOLT

Thousands of protesters will this week stage a nationwide revolt against rail fare increases, with some prepared to break the law if necessary.

As Britain returns to work after the holidays, commuters already struggling to meet travel costs are bracing themselves for an average six per cent increase.

Some travellers will be paying as much as eight per cent more than they were before the Christmas break.

Now passenger groups, campaigners, unions and environmentalists are joining together to show their anger at what they see as the great rail rip-off.

Some opponents of the increases are using social media sites to register commuters^ discontent direct with Chancellor George Osborne.

Others are advocating mass civil disobedience which could cause serious disruption at mainline stations in London and other major cities.

From flash mobs organised via social networking sites to fare strikes where travellers refuse to show their tickets, tens of thousands of travellers will take the fight to the Government and train companies.

Organisations involved in a commuter-led day of action on Tuesday include environmental campaigners Climate Rush, the transport union TSSA^» (Transport Salaried Staffs' Association - about), and the Campaign for Better Transport. The call for ^fair fares^ will see protesters converge on St Pancras Station in London. Those who cannot be there are being called on to tweet, text or call Mr Osborne to show their anger at fare rises.

A letter sent to national newspapers will also publicise the protest. The 22 signatories include MPs^▸ (Member of Parliament), actress Jenny Agutter, comedian Josie Long and celebrity chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.

Some of the groups within the protest coalition are hoping to channel rail users^ resentment into more direct action, including a fare strike and fare dodging.

Tamsin Omond, of Climate Rush, said: ^We are expecting a lot of support on Tuesday because of the anger at what is happening. We want to harness that anger and build it up to a major day of action and civil diso^bedience on Thursday. Some of our supporters will be refusing to pay, but as well as fare dodging other people will be encouraged to go ^on strike^ and not to show their tickets.^

Tom Condon, of the TSSA, said details of any planned protests would not be made public ^until they happen^. He added: ^We will not advocate breaking the law but what we have planned at a number of London^s biggest stations will certainly cause problems.^

Last week the Campaign for Better Transport revealed some passengers are paying three and a half times more for their season tickets than in other European countries.

The Association of Train Operating Companies says fare rises are necessary to continue much-needed investment in rail and Tube services. The Government is determined that passengers, rather than taxpayers, will bear more of the cost.

The Department for Transport said: ^We recognise the pressure on family budgets and that^s why we announced that 2012 regulated rail fares will rise by an average of inflation plus one per cent.^

[ChrisB]

Oh no, Tamsin Omond, whose family has enough money to allow her to be a full-time climate protester & Palace of Westminster roof hugger

[Brucey]

On a lighter note, the latest one doing the rounds on Twitter, originally posted by @TrafailUpdates:
"BRITISH TRANSPORT POLICE: please note, a new offence of "whinging in possession of a season ticket" comes into force from 3 Jan."

[Btline]

Oh lor' it looks as if my tongue in cheek post is turning out out to be true! At least I'm going nowhere near St Pancras...

[ChrisB]

If its anything like the last one last year at Waterloo, it'll be friendly! They only yelled while the cameras were rolling :-)

[johoare]

Well I've just been to buy my ticket for this week.. No fare strike for me..

[ChrisB]

Should've bought it yesterday, and got it pre-increase!

[eightf48544]

Re dummy Postcode unless you purchase the PAF (Postcode Address File) from the Post Office at a considerable price(plus update costs) there is no way of validating a Postcode.

Unless you look each one up manually and then you are only allowed a couple of free searches at a time.

[adc82140]

I don't get all the sensationalist headlines. It's long been an accepted fact that annual ticket holders renew on 31st December to get the previous year's fares. And when people mention increased fares and poor service, actually they don't increase if the service is poor- I'm paying 5% less than last year for that very reason.

[EBrown]

^2.25 increase on my "normal" (non work) ticket. Which represents a 7.86% increase. Not happy.

[eightf48544]

In actual fact I renewed my Annual Season ticket with an employer's loan in June.

Like adc82140 I was getting 5% disounts from around 2000 to 2005 so I was actually paying less in 2005 than the years previously, However, the service was pretty bad, the performace was around 80% which easily  triggered the discount but it meant being late at least twice a week or 2 journeys out of 10. Always the night you wanted to be home promptly!

What upset me though was that when I retired and didn't renew my saeson (I timed it to finish on my last day) I didn't get any compensation for the recent year June 2004/5. The discount I got on that ticket was for 2003/4.

It's another case of people not thinking through all the sceanarios, you can endure a year of poor service which would trigger a discount but if you don't renew you are not compensated.  I think I should have had 5% cash back on full price of my last ticket

[grahame]

Re dummy Postcode unless you purchase the PAF (Postcode Address File) from the Post Office at a considerable price(plus update costs) there is no way of validating a Postcode.

Unless you look each one up manually and then you are only allowed a couple of free searches at a time.

Agreed if you want to check / validate the house number or name.   But code point open data does allow you to check whether a postcode is valid, and indeed maps it to an OS^▸ (Ordnance Survey) grid reference. See
https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/oswebsite/products/code-point-open/index.html

[ChrisB]

I don't get all the sensationalist headlines.

Because to get Govt (re)action, you have to first get these headlines in the press

[paul7575]

This 'same story every year' only exists because of the way railway fares are regulated. 

If every supermarket chain, or public utility, saved up its price rises until Jan 2nd every year; and more importantly had announcements about such upcoming rises made in the budget and autumn statements, I guess rail fares would no longer get this treatment...

Paul

[ChrisB]

Well, it seems to be having some effect already!

From The Telegraph website

Ministers ready to 'review' next year's train fare rises
Ministers are ready to reconsider plans for steep train fare rises over the next two years, the Daily Telegraph can disclose.

The price of rail season tickets, which are controlled by the Government, are due to rise by three per cent above inflation in 2013 and 2014 under current Treasury spending plans.

But the Daily Telegraph has learned that these rises, which were announced shortly after the Coalition took office, are ^not set in stone^ and are being kept ^under constant review^.

Commuters are already facing an average six per cent rise this week in the cost of their season tickets.

The increase would have been higher but for the intervention of Justine Greening, shortly after she became Transport Secretary.

Her predecessor, Philip Hammond, drew criticism when he described rail travel as a ^rich man^s toy^.

However Ms Greening won a major concession from the Treasury and the increase was scaled back to one per cent above inflation rather than three per cent as originally planned.

This meant that the cost of commuting, which is capped by the Government, rose by an average of six per cent, rather than eight per cent.

However with commuters on some routes facing rises approaching 10 per cent, there has been mounting anger from passengers, despite the concession.

Some are planning to block the Treasury^s switchboard in protest, while others are threatening to use Twitter to deluge George Osborne, the Chancellor, with tweets.

As the next election approaches pressure is likely to increase for more Treasury support to water down the following two years^ fare rises.

With the commuter belt housing many marginal constituencies, the issue of season ticket fare rises is likely to become politically sensitive.

Ms Greening has sought to win commuters^ backing with a series of announcements including extra carriages for people travelling into London from the Sussex coast and returning one of Eurostar^s Waterloo platforms to domestic use.

Nevertheless the cost of rail travel is also a difficult one for the Coalition with the Liberal Democrats having fought the election on a pledge to make it cheaper to use the trains.

There is also understood to be some unease among Tory MPs^▸ (Member of Parliament) at the political damage high fare rises could do in the run up to the next election.

In the long term the Government says its plans improve the efficiency of the rail industry could make annual fare rises a thing of the past.

But this will depend on implementing recommendations made by Sir Roy McNulty, who told the Government that there was scope to cut 30 per cent from rail^s running costs.

The prospect of a rethink was welcomed by Stephen Joseph, chief executive of the Campaign for Better Transport.

"Any suggestion that the Government may retreat on the eye-watering rail fares rises planned for future years will be welcomed by hard-pressed commuters, who are making their anger known today at this year's rise by blitzing the Treasury with phone calls, tweets and texts,^ he said.

^A retreat would also make good political sense: we've calculated that up to 50 marginal constituencies have high proportions of rail commuters and could be at risk at the next election".