Sevenoaks Town councillors Merilyn Canet and Tony Clayton have set out the facts relating to fare increases in this area – in a letter to Norman Baker, Lib Dem MP and Under-Secretary of State for Transport.
1st November 2011
To: Norman Baker MP
Houses of Parliament
From: Councillors Merilyn Canet and Tony Clayton
Sevenoaks, Kent
Dear Norman,
We were glad to be able to speak to you at the regional conference in Whitstable.
With representatives from Tunbridge Wells, we raised the issue of fares increase by South East Trains of RPI + 3 + 5% giving an increase approaching 12% last January. These applied not just to a few fares but to the bulk of season tickets used every day by a majority of rail users. We also told you that South East Trains have advised Sevenoaks Rail Travellers Association that we face the same again in January 2012, which would deliver an increase close to 13%.
The briefing you are getting from officials (and probably SE Trains) is clearly based on RPI + 3% as the norm, with a few areas with higher increases, to pay for new investment. You seemed genuinely surprised to hear that the Kent Coast mainline fares have gone up by RPI + 8 – and that we have had no investment in services to justify it. If South East Trains do not change their policy – which they present as yours – we will see fare rises in West Kent and East Sussex of 25% between 2010 and 2012, with no improvement to services in sight.
The SRTA web site at
http://www.srta.org.uk/Why%20have%20fares%20increased%20so%20much.htm
sets out the position affecting Sevenoaks and theWest Kent /East Sussex line.
The key points you need to know are:
whatever the policy says, most users on the Kent Coast mainlinehad an increase close to 12% in 2011, based on RPI + 3% + 5%;
we have been told that SET has the intention (and a duty to taxpayers and shareholders) to repeat this, which would give an increase of 13% in 2012;
there is no major investment planned in the Kent Coast mainline;
we cannot find any fares covered by the SET franchise which rose by less than RPI plus 3%, except those covered by TfL, which are capped;
this means Kent and Sussex commuters are paying a massive, hidden, subsidy to London, which is unfair;
the SET spokesman who came to our AGM last week said that they had decided to give us the biggest percentage fare increases, despite the fact that our fares per mile are already among the highest in the country;
this is an abuse of monopoly power, which government should not permit.
Will you please help avoid a repeat of last year’s rises in two months time?
Yours sincerely
Merilyn Canet and Tony Clayton