Rail passengers on Merseyside face New Year rail fare increase

Rail passengers on Merseyside face another increase in their fares from today

On average ticket prices have risen 3.1% on average. A season ticket from Liverpool to Manchester will now cost an extra £100 a year.

Research shows UK passengers spend up to five times as much on season tickets as other European travellers.

The union organisation said it also discovered that private rail operators in the UK have paid out more than £1 billion in dividends to shareholders in the last six years.

The TUC said the 3.1% rise in season tickets was higher than the expected growth in wages this year of 2.5%.

The rail industry and Government say the fare increase will go towards improvements on the railway.

TUC general secretary Frances O'Grady said: "The most reliable thing about our railways is the cash that goes to private shareholders each year, but with the most expensive fares in Europe, that can't be right. It's rewarding failure and taking money away that should be invested in better services.

"It's time to take the railways back into public hands. Every penny from every fare should go back into the railways. The number one priority should be running a world-class railway service, not private profit.''

Mick Cash, leader of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union said: "The British fare-payer has been battered by the toxic combination of gross mismanagement and profiteering by the private companies exploiting Britain's rip-off railways."

"Our passengers have been left paying the highest fares in Europe to travel on rammed-out and unreliable services and that is a national disgrace. The only solution is to sweep this whole racket away and return our railways to public ownership.''

Unite national officer Harish Patel said: Given last year's rail timetable chaos, presided over by the hapless Transport Secretary Chris Grayling, there should be no rail fare increases for hard-pressed travellers in 2019 - fares should have been frozen. The 3.1% rise is an insult.

As usual, the real 'winners' are the greedy shareholders of the privatised rail companies that have gobbled up more than £1 billion in ill-gotten dividends in the last six years - money that could have gone towards freezing fares and boosting rail investment."

Every day the case for the public ownership of the rail industry grows stronger, especially after the woeful performance of 2018."