In an attempt to cut the £5million rail industry subsidy, the Department of Transport want to allow train companies to charge up to 10% more for travellers season and saver tickets.

Currently, train companies are allowed to charge prices of 1% over next month’s retail price index; but this method may be at risk which will mean that companies could charge a far higher rate.

In a quote in the Telegraph, Anthony Smith, chief executive of Passenger Focus, the rail watchdog, said the rises would penalise commuters.

“This is a return to the bad old days of double-digit fare rises. It will hit commuters and season ticket holders hardest, passengers who have no choice but to travel by train – they are a captive market,” he said.

Philip Hammond, the Transport Secretary, has suggested that perhaps better-off people who are entitled to free travel at the moment start paying again in order to help tackle Britain’s financial problems.

As part of the spending cuts that the new coalition government are making, the £7.5bn project the previous government were planning on spending on replacing 125 Intercity trains could be scrapped. This could lead to passengers continuing to travel on 30+ year-old trains on some of Britain’s most popular routes.

The announcement of this review was made by Transport Secretary, Philip Hammond. If this goes ahead, around 12,500 jobs that the previous government said would have been safeguarded by the project are also in jeopardy. The contract, obtained by consortium Agility Trains, stated that 70% of the project would be done in Britain with a new factory built in one of three locations, either Sheffield, Ashby de la Zouch in Leicestershire or Gateshead.

A quote from the consortium in the Telegraph newspaper said:

“We have expressed our commitment to continue working with the Department for Transport to respond to the points in the report, and to find an affordable solution which meets the government’s objectives.”

Some train fares are set to quadruple in price because of a change in classification of train times from ‘off-peak’ to the more expensive ‘peak’. The train companies are able to increase their fares with this tactic without the need for permission from their regulator.

Passenger Focus, the rail watchdog, described some of the fare increases as ‘astronomical’ although train companies claim only a ‘tiny’ number of passengers are affected.

An example of one of the larger fare increases is a return from London to Manchester at 9.15am returning at 8.55am the next day would have set you back £66 last year but the same ticket on Virgin Trains now costs £262!

Virgin said the re-designation of times and prices only affected 3.4 per cent pf their services, and South West said it affected eight per cent of its services.

Virgin also stressed that passengers can still make savings by buying their tickets in advance, and online.

Edward Welsh, of the Association of Train Operating Companies (Atoc), said the vast majority of travellers have seen fares fall, stay the same or rise below the rate of inflation over time, whereas conversely Bob Crow, general secretary of the RMT Union, said rail firms had used privatisation as a “licence to print money”.

Some tips for keeping fares as cheap as possible are as follows:

• Buy in advance
• Travel Off-Peak
• Buy a railcard which can save up to a third on your ticket price, railcards range from a Young Person’s 16-25 Railcard, Family and Friends Railcard or a Senior Railcard.
• A slightly longer way of getting cheap tickets is to split your fares and buy shorter journey legs, a website to help you do this is Splitfare.
• You could consider season tickets which often offer discounts to single journeys

A high court judge has in the last hour granted a temporary injunction to Network Rail to stop the strike by signal workers for 4 days next week in a result reminiscent of British Airways’ tactics in their dispute with Unite. Network Rail claimed that there were indiscrepencies in the way that the union ballot for the strike was held and was therefore unlawful.

The irregularities in the vote were said to be:

• balloting 11 signal boxes that have been closed for years

• recording more votes than employees in 67 locations

• failing to ballot 26 workplaces involving 100 staff

• balloting 12 locations where staff were ineligible to vote.

This does not affect the strike by maintenance workers also planned for next week, however this will only cause minor disruption in comparison to what was expected if both strikes went ahead.

The union will now re-ballot its members. RMT General Secretary Bob Crow said in response to the injunction: ”This judgment is an attack on the whole trade union movement and twists the anti-union laws even further in favour of the bosses. Workers fighting for the principle of a safe railway have had the whole weight of the law thrown against them.”

A relief to travellers next week, however if the ballot is returned for another strike there is disruption yet to come.

Network Rail is seeking an injunction against the strike planned for next week, claiming that there are discrepancies in the vote that decided on the strike. Papers have been served to the RMT Union this afternoon.

The union’s General Secretary, Bob Crow said ”We spent two days in talks and making some serious progress Network Rail has chosen to sabotage that progress by using the anti-union laws to drag us into the High Court. As far aw we are concerned we ran a perfectly legal and above board ballot and will defend our position to the hilt.”

In an open letter on Network Rail’s website, Chief Executive Iain Coucher said ”Network Rail has worked very hard indeed to make reasonable and worthwhile offers to the unions so we can negotiate an end to their disputes.

“I don’t believe any of those offers have been considered seriously by the unions’ leaders during our many discussions, which also involved ACAS for two days last week… or they wouldn’t have called a national rail strike.

“We will keep trying to help the unions and their members understand our offers to avoid strikes: but they must want to negotiate, and not just make empty gestures about talking.”

The strike could effectively bring the rail system to a halt but there were reports this morning that if Network Rail manage to run a skeleton service then commuters who have spent thousands of pounds on season tickets will not be able to receive compensation. Passengers who have bought a ticket for a train which is cancelled due to the strike will be able to get a refund or an alternative ticket. London TravelWatch have said for commuters however, that if they are unable to get to work for a ‘reasonable hour’ then they should be entitled to claim compensation as not everyone is able to travel at alternative times in the day.