MP seeks assurances over East Coast rail travel
July 1, 2009 12:00 AM
Following the news that the Government is to nationalise the East Coast mainline, and withdraw the franchise from National Express, Gordon MP Malcolm Bruce is to write to Transport Secretary Lord (Andrew) Adonis seeking assurances for the future of the Aberdeen section of the line.
The North east section to Aberdeen is a spur to the East Coast Mainline and Mr Bruce had already expressed concerns in 2007 when the franchise was removed from GNER and awarded to National Express with a price tag of £1.4bn
Mr Bruce said:
"The East Coast Mainline is the poisoned chalice of rail franchises. Following GNER's demise, National Express was unable to attract new passengers onto their trains sounding a warning signal to the Government.
"If the new publicly- owned franchise is to succeed it needs to reconsider some of the penalties such as ticket reservation fees; it also needs to simplify the fare structure and make rail travel competitive against air fares."
Speaking in the House of Commons on the day of the announcement Mr Bruce asked the Transport Minister:
"Passengers from Aberdeen will very much regret this second debacle, and they always regretted the loss of GNER anyway. What can the Minister do in this interim time to ensure that we get competitive fares rather than the extra charges that National Express imposed? We need to compete with the airlines, because it is now cheaper to fly than to use the railways."
Sadiq Khan (Minister of State, Department for Transport; replied:
"The right hon. Gentleman raises a really important issue. There are two issues, relating to regulated and unregulated fares. He will be aware that the train operating companies have agreed to increase their fares only by RPI plus 1 per cent. The pundits tell us that the RPI should be lower this July, when the figures are taken, so in January we expect regulated fares to reduce. However, we cannot escape the fact that unregulated fares can go up. We advise passengers who go for the cheap airline tickets also to look for cheap train tickets, which can be obtained if they are booked far enough in advance."
ENDS
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