Rail fares are up again, with the latest rise – of an average of 3.4 per cent – the biggest in five years. Labour are clear about who is to blame: it’s the government’s fault, according to the shadow transport secretary Andy McDonald. But whether that’s right or not, it’s inevitable that anger at this latest rise will be directed at the Conservatives – and Labour is likely to make political capital as a result of this commuter anger.
A fare rise is now an ‘inevitable ingredient of every new year’, says the Times, which points out that an annual pass to travel between Birmingham and London will now cost £10,567 – a rise of a third in the last eight years. There is ‘little wonder that there have been protests’ at this latest jump in ticket costs, argues the paper, which says that the increase dwarves CPI inflation, meaning that commuters now have to fork out even more of their earnings just to get to work.
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