COVENTRY residents face the fifth worst value commute into London, latest figures show.
Money Super Market research shows national commuters into London ‘lose’ up to £5,000 a year in unpaid travelling time.
Coventry commuters face high rental costs and even inflating annual ticket prices which contributes to the depreciating cost-efficiency of commuting to London.
The research was undertaken amid the biggest fare increase in half a decade which came into force on New Year’s Day.
According to the price comparison website, 79 per cent of Brits say they feel they’re ‘trapped’ into paying higher train fees.
The research also reveals that nearly a tenth (9.3 per cent) of those that travel by train never get a seat, despite the high annual ticket cost.
The Commuter Cost Index looks at the average rental costs, ticket prices, and hours ‘spent’ travelling (based on an average London hourly wage of £17.30) in over 30 key commuter towns to create the table documenting the real cost of commuting into London.
It was also announced that rail fares are also set to rise a third faster than wages in the UK.
Wages are set to grow by only 2.6 per cent in 2018, while season tickets will go up by 3.6 per cent.
UK workers on average salaries will have to fork out around 11 per cent of their pay to travel to commute to work in different parts of the region.
A Coventry commuter earning the UK average monthly salary of £2845.17 would have to pay £185.90 for a season ticket to travel the 34 mile journey to Northampton.
This is 6.53 per cent of monthly earnings .
By contrast, comparable commutes would cost a mere two per cent of the average salary in France, three per cent in Italy, four per cent in Germany, and five per cent in Spain and Belgium.
In another example provided by the TUC, to commute from Coventry to Kidderminster a season ticket would cost £494.60 and this would represent a huge 18 per cent of average wage.
Kevin Pratt, consumer affairs expert at MoneySuperMarket, commented: “By attributing a monetary value to the time we spend commuting, we can understand what the real cost of commuting is for those who come to London to work.
“This in turn means people can start to take control of their time and money priorities.
“For example, people who are time-poor may be happy to live in a costlier but closer commuter town, while those whose monthly outgoings are stretched might be happy to spend more time travelling if it saves money overall.”
Commenting on the fare rise in the Midlands, Kevin Chapman, the Midlands representative of the Campaign for Better Transport said: “This is going to hit people hard in the pocket and is completely unfair, especially when fuel duty has been frozen.
“Commuters from Rugby to Birmingham will see a £102 rise per year in the cost of their season while a passenger from Stratford upon Avon to Birmingham will pay £57 a year more.
“And in many cases, the customer service offered by the railway is not good enough.
“Passengers deserve a better service for their money.”
