This January will see rail fares rise by an average of 8% and some as high as 13% - That's daylight robbery for most passengers as season tickets rise by hundreds of pounds more each year and walk up fares reach eye watering levels. We need affordable fares, not day light robbery. Worse of all this Government sanctioned stealth tax is set to continue for the next four years - a wallet busting price hike! For many in the workforce and education who commute this will be a tax too far on employment and on education. Indeed spin doctors are already on the case and this is publicised not as a “Fare Increase” but merely as a “Fare Revision” or in an attempt at absolute minimalism as “New Fares.” Who can argue with “New Fares” – we were so fed up with those old fares!
Since Boris Johnson was elected Mayor of London bus fares have increased 55% in 3 years
Now there is a further example proposed of the “Hershey Bar Technique” – charging more for less. But this time under the heading of “Red Tape Challenge” the almost invisible “rights” enjoyed by passengers are being eroded further. The ConDem Coalition government has signalled its intentions by publishing the latest in its series about the Red Tape Challenge which is currently focused on Rail and Maritime. There are several areas of concern but one that applies to passengers, workers and communities appears under the section Rail Transport: Fares and Licensing at:
http://www.redtapechallenge.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/rail-transport-fares-and-licensing/
If you follow the link you will see a box on the left hand side that lists legislation that the ConDem Coalition government evidently considers to be red tape.
What is the Red Tape Challenge?
The government has a policy to reduce what they regard as red tape because it allegedly hurts business and, they claim, does real damage to our economy. Whilst in marginal cases this may be true, in reality what the Red Tape Challenge is about is reducing business regulation in a variety of areas so that companies can maximise profits either:
1. At the expense of workers’ employment rights, including pensions and safety, or
2. by removing passenger rights as demonstrated by the inclusion of the National Conditions of Carriage and the Ticketing & Settlement Agreement. The Rail Fares and Licensing issues clearly have an impact on both passengers and workers:
The National Conditions of Carriage gives passengers some protection around ticketing and as you will see from the Red Tape Challenge link above, a number of people have already added their comments in this area. However, it is with regard to the Ticketing and Settlement Agreement (TSA) that it is also regarded as Red Tape and the government is trying to change it drastically to attack the scant “rights” passengers have.
The McNulty Report, published in May 2011 recommended that there should be either “amendment or removal by the DfT of the obligations in the TSA relating to ticket office opening hours.” The government's formal response to the McNulty Report has been delayed into the New Year but by the inclusion of the TSA in the Red Tape Challenge it appears to be signalling its intentions.
The TSA is important because Schedule 17 stipulates that if a train operating company wants to change the opening hours of a ticket office – or simply close it altogether – it must carry out a three week stakeholder consultation via the passenger watchdogs, Passenger Focus and London Travel Watch. This means it must ask for the views of the local communities that will be affected by the proposal.
There have been a number of examples of consultations where a combination of groups and individuals have successfully campaigned to keep ticket offices open because of the service that they provide to local communities, not to mention to protect the jobs of rail workers. One of the most recent – and high profile – was London Midland’s plans to close or amend the opening hours of virtually all of its ticket offices but which resulted in over 18,000 objections from members of the public.
The TSA's three week public consultation is a very short period but if Schedule 17 of the TSA is withdrawn, there will be no public consultation at all when ticket offices are shut or their hours reduced. This will mean that communities up and down the country will be presented with a fait accompli as commercial companies put profits before public services. On my own line to Aylesbury it would mean station ticket offices at Stoke Mandeville, Wendover and Great Missenden would be closed.
Against this backdrop, there is a very real threat which comes from the recommendation in the McNulty Report that the ticket offices on all 600+ Category E stations should be shut – and the opening hours on another 300 ticket offices on Category D stations should be reduced.
Stoke Mandeville is one of 600+ stations which could have its ticket offices closed without consultation after the McNulty Report
Please click on the link above and fill in the box that appears to let the government know that you object to any change to Schedule 17 of the Ticketing and Settlement Agreement because stakeholder (public) consultation must be kept. It is a form of democracy that the government wants to remove but why should they?
You have until Thursday 8th December to participate so please hurry.
And when you have done that, please tells Together for Transport by e-mailing;
rob@togetherfortransport.org
What else can you do?
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