It’s as if the government want another riot or something. (No we’re not suggesting that happens, but we’re just purely shocked that they seem to be provoking the people at a time like this). If there’s one last thing we all needed to hear in London it certainly wouldn’t be that rail travel prices are set to soar by 13% come January. You know when you emerge from your Christmas/New Year blurry haze with a pot-belly and venture down the road, bleary eyed wondering where the festive season went, only to be further confused in your dazed state when you don’t know how much a train ticket is, ‘cause the machine’s telling you you’re a quid short. Then you remember the shock horror that this horrible increase happens every single year, much to your disdain.
With Londoners having to pretty much write off a tenner on a daily basis to get around The Capital, it seems like an insane decision to us to attempt to raise travel costs to these levels. Along with this rail travel increase will be an increase of gas prices by 18%, and food prices increased by 5% just last month. Bob Crow, general secretary of the RMT rail union, commented on the unfair rise saying, “Commuters will be absolutely disgusted to be told that they will be facing a fare rise of eight per cent at a time when salaries are being frozen and rail companies are taking billions out of the industry in subsidies.” Further backing up his point, “If you look at punctuality of the train companies, it’s about where it was when British Rail was privatised so there has been no massive improvement to justify the fare increases. What we’re going to see with these rises are the hard working people of this country being extorted for more money by train companies.” With the fairs of traveling to work extending passed the norm, it will surely drive people in a lower pay bracket out of a job, if they cannot afford to commute. What we don’t understand is that with already paying a fortune for a rail card, trains are still late, and not to mention the frequent tube strikes that have occurred over the past year. If the rail workers aren’t getting any of the valuable pennies we’re spending on rail tickets, then we beg the question, who is? (Greedy-weedy Cleggy-weggy and D-Cameroni you gots some splainin’ to do mi chicas)
Like this read more of our news here
