RAIL FARES

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A disabled woman said she had endured seven months of stress after being wrongly accused of not paying a train fare. Anna Stasiak of Derby said she had no idea why charges of failing to pay a £49.50 train fare two-and-a-half years ago were brought against her. She had proof that she attended a doctors' appointment in Derby on the morning of the alleged offence in London - which she had not visited since 1969.

Mrs Stasiak was facing a round trip of more than five hours to a court in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, to face a trial this month. Now the court has confirmed there will still be a formal hearing, but West Hertfordshire magistrates will be told there is no case to answer. The case concerned an alleged journey on a Virgin train between London Euston and Manchester Piccadilly, on 14 July, 2003.

Mrs Stasiak said the first she knew about the charge was when she received a letter in June informing her that she had to pay £279.50 after Central Hertfordshire magistrates found her guilty at a hearing in January, 2004, of not paying a fare. But Mrs Stasiak knew she had attended a doctor's appointment in Village Street, Derby, on the morning of the alleged offence, and the surgery provided a letter confirming this.

She made a declaration at Southern Derbyshire Magistrates' Court on June 26 to inform the court that she felt she had no case to answer. Mrs Stasiak was then summoned to appear at West Hertfordshire Magistrates' Court, in Hemel Hempstead, on November 11. She wrote to the court stating her intention to enter a not guilty plea, and she received a second summons on November 19 for the adjourned hearing.

However, the Evening Telegraph discovered that Transport Investigations, an agency that acts for train firms, had dropped its claim 11 days before she received the second summons. The court confirmed that the case was listed for trial, but then it changed its tune. Mrs Stasiak, who has been too ill to work since 2000 due to problems with nerves in her back, said, "I don't know why they have put me through all this. I've had a pretty miserable Christmas worrying about this and a very stressful few months."

Transport Investigations operations and prosecutions manager John Abbott said, "From our point of view, the case was dropped on November 8. It was decided then that the case would be dismissed." The court's deputy listings manager, Robert Spolander, said he could not explain what had happened. He added, "Mrs Stasiak has now been informed that she will not need to attend." (Source: Derby Evening Telegraph, Jan/06)

Passengers are forced to pay huge variations in rail fares per mile depending on where they live, and much more than travellers in comparable continental countries. The rail-fare lottery means that some standard fares on long-distance routes can be up to three times higher than others for similar distances. Those using Virgin services on the west coast main line invariably pay considerably more than passengers on the east coast route run by Great North Eastern Railways (GNER). And despite their relative cheapness, GNER fares are up to three times higher than they could be if the French and Belgian fare structures were adopted, the study for the RMT rail union finds.

The standard fare per mile between London and Peterborough on GNER, a distance of 77 miles, is 35p, passengers on the 82-mile trip between the capital and Rugby on Virgin Trains will pay 96p a mile. The standard fare per mile on GNER's services between London and York, a distance of 188 miles, is 38p, but on Virgin's west coast service between London and Manchester, the same distance, passengers will pay 99p a mile. The researchers calculate that while a standard single between London and Edinburgh would cost £97, on equivalent routes in Belgium it would be £47 and in France £36. The comparative fares from the capital to York are £70 on GNER, £22.68 if the Belgians were in charge and £22.25 in France.

East coast fares, however, are about to increase substantially. GNER agreed to pay the Government £1.3bn over the next 10 years as part of its successful battle to retain the company's franchise. It also promised more than £100m in new investment on trains and stations. It is generally accepted that the increased payments to the Exchequer are bound to mean increased fares. Bob Crow, general secretary of the RMT rail union, pointed out that the Labour pressure group Catalyst had estimated that the Government could save £4.5bn over the next parliament by renationalising the railways. He said, "Failure to do this will result in even higher fares and cuts in services," Mr Crow said. "A publicly owned railway would have a national fare structure like in France and Belgium. That would be much fairer to the travelling public."

A spokesman for Virgin said there had been a 30% increase in the number of passengers using west coast services between London and Manchester since more frequent services using the new Pendolino trains were introduced last September. "Passengers have obviously made their own judgement about the service and compared fares with those available on airlines and the cost and inconvenience of using their cars," the spokesman said. He said that only a minority of passengers paid the full standard fares on the routes. Most booked ahead and paid considerably less. Industry sources said that while the RMT was focusing on the comparison with fares in France and Belgium, they had neglected to take into account the relatively low wage increases paid to railway workers in those countries. Higher wages in this country meant higher fares, the sources said. (Source: The Independent)

Rail and Tube fares for London and the South are up to five times dearer than other major European cities. An annual season ticket from Hemel Hempstead, Herts to Euston costs £2,504 for the 23-mile trip, compared with £510 for a journey of similar length to Berlin. In London, an annual travelcard taking in a 15-mile radius of the city centre costs £1,580. In Paris, a similar ticket costs £950 to travel in a 20-mile radius. In Berlin, it costs £820 for a 40-mile radius. In Madrid the cost is only £510 for a 40-mile zone. The research, by the RMT union, is the first to compare the combined annual cost of mainline rail and city metro services in different regions. It comes after inflation-busting fare increases, despite one in five trains running late. On some London commuter routes the figure is one in four.

There have been warnings of years of further rises, and campaign group Transport 2000 said the issue could play a key role in the General Election. Transport 2000 director Stephen Joseph said, "Unless the Government comes forward with a vision for the railways based on more capacity and reasonable fares, it could face defeat in commuter constituencies." The survey also shows British mainline rail passengers can pay more per year to travel on a single route than their continental counterparts pay for unlimited travel across their entire country. A yearly Milton Keynes-Euston season ticket costs £3,284, but in Germany a £2,047 ticket gives unlimited travel to anywhere in the country. In the Netherlands, passengers can buy an annual travel-anywhere ticket costing £1,382, 138% cheaper than the Milton Keynes ticket.

Bob Crow, RMT general secretary, said, "The rail privateers are taking out a billion pounds a year from the mainline railways and £2m a week from the Tube, is it any wonder that commuters are paying through the nose for their tickets? Commuters in countries where the railways remain in public hands pay a fraction of the season tickets costs here. The time has come to draw the line under privatisation and bring rail and Tube back to the public sector where they belong." The price of tickets for Tube zones 1-3 has jumped by up to three times the rate of inflation. On mainline rail, the biggest rise was 7.2% on some Silverlink services into Euston. (Source: Mail on Sunday)