Following the news that, under the Tories, long suffering commuters will be hit by yet another fare rise (+2.4%) starting in January; Labour have set out plans to, instead, slash rail fares by a third from January and make rail free for all under 16s.
Commuters travelling from Didcot to London each day on a monthly season ticket would save £168.20 a month (£2,018.40 a year).
Redirecting £1.5bn of cash raised from Vehicle Excise Duty (‘Road tax’) which the Tories hace allocated to new roads this policy will instead act as a spur for even more road users to ditch their car in favour of using the railways.
All season tickets (as well as other regulated fares) will fall 33% with part-time workers set to benefit even more as part-time season tickets will be set at the same price per day as a 5-day season ticket.
Labour will install London-style zonal pricing in every region of the U.K and allow rail users to ‘tap in’ to pay with their bank card for trains and buses. Labour will also introduce ‘single leg’ pricing for longer journeys so that getting a single costs close to half that of a return instead of the ludicrous situation where a single costs virtually the same as a return ticket.