WEST MIDLANDS commuters are outraged at having to spend up to five times more on rail fares than other Europeans.
The TUC’s (Trades Union Congress) research into UK rail fares coincides with the biggest fare increase in half a decade, which came into force on New Year’s Day.
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.
Across Coventry and other areas of the West Midlands, many took to social media to vent their frustration.
CU Future Lets, the University Campus’ one-stop-shop for student accommodation, warned students, saying: “Thinking of commuting into #Coventry for your next academic year? With a ticket increase of “3.4% in January” you might want to think again!”
David Potter, an angry commuter, tweeted to London Midland rail services: “By what crazy logic is it that a return from Coventry to Northampton is £13.20 and a single is £10.70? #mad #railfares.”
Another tweeting traveller said: “Trains should be run for working-class not the rich passengers- greed, greed, greed- no one can afford to go to London from Coventry- £100 return ticket- ridiculous.”
Peter McDaniel also said: “Went to price a ticket from Tiverton to Coventry to see a friend and it was cheaper to rent a car.”
To heap more misery on passengers, 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.
The news has also stoked the fire in the debate about renationalisation of the railways and the cost of living.
The TUC and many Labour MPs have used this opportunity to criticise unsustainable and unfair price rises as symptomatic of system wide failures following the outsourcing of rail services to a network of private train operators in 1997.
Critics have focused on comparatively efficient and cheap rail services, some state owned, in European countries like Germany.
TUC Midlands, regional secretary Lee Barron said: “A new year, but the same old story, with rail commuters yet again facing rip off price rises.
“Wages are already stretched, and this latest increase will further eat into the pay packets of commuters across the Midlands.
“It doesn’t need to be this way. Commuters across Europe have access to reasonably-priced travel on public railways and it’s about time that we had a change of approach and gave commuters a break.
“Employers can help out by offering zero-interest season ticket loans, or offering more flexible work hours and locations.
“But ultimately the government need to take our railways back into public hands.
“That will stop hundreds of millions being siphoned off by private rail firms, and allow us to put passengers first.”
Paul Plummer, chief executive of the Rail Delivery Group, said: “On average, fares will rise by less than inflation this year. “For every pound paid in fares, 97p goes directly back to operating and improving services and, with more people travelling, that means more money for investment by the private and public partnership railway to build the better network Britain needs.
“Working together in partnership across the industry and with government our long-term plan to improve will secure £85billion of additional economic benefits while enabling further investment and improvement for customers, communities and our people.”
