Hastings Commuters Forced To Pay For HS1 Services!

[HSTChris]

Saw this on the news so I thought I would post it here.

Did you know that passengers from Hastings and the surroudning areas took a fare incrase in order to pay for HS1 services? Now that may sound fair enough, until I tell you that theres no point in Hastings commuters using HS1 services, because it just costs more and takes longer compared to going the usual way.

I don't think it's fair that we should pay more to fund a service we're not going to use.

There was a big news report on ITV news about this before, but not sure what happened after it.

 

[jon0844]

I don't see how anyone should pay more for HS1, then get a season that says 'NOT HS1' on it.

That is obscene and unfair.

If they want to (and will) charge more for using HS1, so be it - but charging everyone else? Ridiculous.

 

[HSTChris]

They should only charge the people who use HS1. Not the people who don't want to / can't.

 

[A60K]

How much have prices increased - is this just a regular increase, or has there been some cock-up with the pricing?

 

[HSTChris]

I am not sure exactly, because the news article was broadcast months ago now.

 

[jon0844]

I think it's classed as a regular increase, but they were allowed by the Government to raise fares by more than other TOCs to pay for HS1. My colleague and his partner both have NOT HS1 written on their season ticket.

In their case, they're annoyed because they are likely to get less trains on the line they can use, as services switch to HS1. It's even worse though if you couldn't even use HS1 at all!

That said, if the Government levied a small tax on ALL train tickets throughout the UK to pay for new routes (and not simply to go into central Government coffers), perhaps that wouldn't be considered so bad.

 

[HSTChris]

In my opinion, if you want to use HS1, you should pay for it yourself. Meaning only people actually using that route should pay the extra.