Rt Hon Justine Greening MP

Department for Transport

76 Great Marsham Street

London

SW1P 4DR

Date: 20 August 2012

Dear Justine,

I am writing to request an urgent meeting to discuss the impact of rail fare increases on my constituents in Brighton Pavilion. It is totally unacceptable that fares are to rise in January by up to 6.2% – 3% above inflation – with some rising by up to 11%.

In the interests of the people who are already under massive financial pressure and who rely on our train services, the economy as a whole and the environment, I am calling on you to do the right thing and urgently implement a U-turn on the disastrous policy of rail fare increases.

Constituents are raising this matter and are rightly saying that these increases represent a totally unacceptable tax on commuters, given that the percentage increase above the 1% written into franchise agreements flows directly into the Treasury.

Worried Brighton residents working in London repeatedly tell me that they are already suffering from below average earnings and they simply can't afford the proposed increases, on top of all the other austerity measures. Rail fares should be reduced, not increased.

Furthermore, constituents simply cannot understand why Network Rail, which receives almost £4bn a year from the taxpayer, is reportedly seeking to introduce a possible £12m bonus scheme for its six top directors, whilst they are facing fare increases that for many will either push them into debt or leave them unable to afford to commute.

As well as reversing plans for this above-inflation hike in rail fares, I would ask you to acknowledge that rail privatisation has not been successful, and instead to set out steps towards bringing the railways back into public ownership.

If we are to compete with the world’s best maintained and best run railways Government must acknowledge that it is only possible to make profits on some parts of our rail operations whilst recognising that economic, social and environmental benefits validate the use of public money for investment in our railways.

As part of this recognition the railways should be state-run. The privatisation and fragmentation of the railways was a huge mistake. The benefit to the economy of having a strong, integrated, publicly owned rail infrastructure is clear.

State-run railways are the norm in France and Germany to give two examples and their fares are approximately 50% less than ours. Their trains run on time, they’re clean, they’re fast and they’re affordable.

I should also be grateful for your response to the recommendations of the comprehensive report published in June this year entitled 'Rebuilding Rail' by Transport for Quality of Life (1) which makes a very detailed and convincing case for public ownership of our railways.

The report rightly points out that our privatised railway is failing society, the economy and the environment, whilst draining taxpayers’ money into the pockets of private shareholders.

It also points out that the fragmentation inherent in our privatised system leads to an estimated annual loss of £1.2bn of public money. That amount could have allowed fares to be 18% lower than they are today. The Government frequently states that it is determined to cut out waste and inefficiency and here is an opportunity to do so.

Without public ownership, Britain will struggle on with a disjointed, complex and dysfunctional railway system that often makes commuting a miserable experience and that puts us to shame internationally.

We need to simplify the system not introduce more complexity as proposed by the flawed McNulty Review which, if implemented will mean the continuation of large sums of money still being lost to the inefficiencies of multifarious contractual agreements between so many different companies.

I strongly urge you to consider the approach recommended in this report, of Government acquiring franchises as they expire or as companies fail to meet franchise conditions.

The report does point out that whilst up-front costs could be minimised by this step-by-step approach to bringing Train Operation Companies back into public ownership, there might come a point at which the one-off cost of buying out the remaining franchisees would be justified by savings from a completely unified operation that avoided the ongoing costs of residual fragmentation.

In the context of the model proposed by this report, have officials done any work on the costs of paying for public ownership with Government bonds?

Formally making Network Rail a public body carries the political consequence of facing up to the £24 billion debt that would show on the government balance sheet as public debt - but the importance of making our rail network fit for purpose cannot be squandered for political expediency. Network Rail’s debt is utterly unsustainable for the future of the railway and will have to be shouldered by government at some point.

I hope that you will agree to my request for an urgent meeting and I look forward to your early response to this letter.

Yours sincerely,

Caroline Lucas, MP Brighton Pavilion

Notes

1) http://www.transportforqualityoflife.com/u/files/120630_Rebuilding_Rail_...