Campaigners will be protesting outside train stations in England and Scotland this week in response to higher rail fares coming into effect, as commuters return to work after the festive break.
Three campaign groups, We Own It, Action For Rail and Bring Back British Rail have joined forces and organised two nationwide days of action in England on Tuesday and Scotland on Wednesday and are calling for an end to the “rail rip off”.
Protests will take place at more than 100 stations, with the largest planned for Manchester Piccadilly, King’s Cross in London and Glasgow Central station.
The Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, is set to join the protest at King’s Cross, which will include a musical flash mob accompanied by a string quartet organised by another group, Campaign for Better Transport.
The Labour party has conducted research into train fares and found that season tickets have gone up by an average of 27% since 2010, while the TUC found that rail fares had risen at more than twice the rate of inflation and wages over the last decade.
While fares in the UK continue to rise, cuts to services and staffing are taking place across the network with more ticket offices closing, removal of guards from trains, extension of driver-only operations and fewer staff at stations to provide help when passengers need it.
TUC general secretary, Frances O’Grady, said: “Years of failed privatisation have left us with sky-high ticket prices, overcrowded trains, understaffed services and out-of-date infrastructure. Private train companies are milking the system and the government is letting them get away with it.”
The UK has the most expensive railway system in Europe. UK workers on average salaries will spend 14% of their income on a monthly season ticket from Luton to London (£387) or 11% from Liverpool to Manchester (£292). By contrast, similar commutes would cost passengers only 2% of their incomes in France, 3% in Germany and Italy, and 4% in Spain.
Mick Whelan, the general secretary of Aslef, the union for train drivers and operators, said: “It is scandalous that the government is allowing privatised train companies to make even more money for providing an ever-poorer service.
“We have the most expensive railway in Europe and the train companies, aided and abetted by this government, are about to make it even more costly for people to travel.”
