Responding to today’s price rise for regulated rail fares for 2017, Andy McDonald MP, Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for Transport, commented:

“Today’s announcement will heap more misery on UK commuters who already pay the highest fares in Europe for the overcrowded carriages and unreliable services that increasingly characterise our network.

“Passengers are told that higher fares are necessary to fund investment, but vital projects have been delayed by years and essential maintenance works have been put on hold. Money that could be used to keep fares down or reinvested to improve our services is instead subsidising the profits of private companies and other nation’s railway systems – it’s a scandal.

“As we have seen with the Southern Rail debacle, Ministers are clinging to a failed model for purely ideological reasons – and commuters are being made to pay the price.

“This is why Labour is committed to bringing rail franchises back under public ownership as they expire. That is the best way to secure a fair deal for rail passengers and taxpayers, and long term investment for a modern railway system, putting passengers before profit. That means fairer fares, investment in a 21st century railway and giving passengers a stronger voice. Our trains should run for the benefit of passengers and the taxpayer rather than private and foreign state-owned companies as is presently the case.”