Rush-hour congestion charge for trains
PASSENGERS on rush-hour trains could be forced to pay a 'congestion charge' to stop carriages becoming overcrowded.
Commuters in the South-East would be the most seriously affected, having to shell out a premium on top of their season tickets to continue travelling on their regular morning and evening services.
The Association of Train Operating Companies is today unveiling plans for electronic smart cards which would allow them to charge different prices for each train rather than a blanket feefor all peak services and another discountedrate for off-peak periods.
The premium pricing would come on top of the general fare increases that the Government wants to impose in an attempt to reduce the £6.5bn annual subsidy for the railways.
The association said the controversial pricing system could be needed to combat the effects of the introduction of road tolls, which are expected to force thousands of motorists off thehighways and on to the rail network.
The Rail Passengers Council condemned the plans, saying it was unfair to penalise commuters who had no choice but to catch certain trains. A spokesman said: 'We are opposed to pricing people off trains. The way to attract passengers to less-crowded trains is to offer better off-peak discounts rather than target a captive audience.
'We also need to see major investment in new capacity, including removing bottlenecks and building new lines.'
A spokesman for the train operators said the individual pricing plans were not certain to be implemented, but a ten-year strategy paper being published today was looking at how to deal with the problem of overcrowding.
The association is forecasting a 28% growth in passenger numbers over the next decade. The spokesman added: 'If road pricing comes in there could be a knockon effect. If large numbers of people feel priced off roads, the railwayswon't have the capacity to take allthose extra passengers.
'This paper is not an instruction manual, it is a look at what we need to do to manage that additional growth. Smart cards could be part ofthat management.'
Other measures to handle passenger growth outlined in the paper include selective lengthening of trains, improved track layouts and changes to timetables to enable more services to run. Identifying 'pinch points' on the network and measures to address them along with the possible scrapping of some under-used trains or stations are also being suggested.
Bob Crow, leader of the biggest rail union the RMT, said: 'This is another classic bit of upside-down logic from a bunch of privateers whose main function is to remove large sums of taxpayers'and passengers' cash from the railway industry.'
