RPI +1% for next 2 years?

[eastdyke]

From London Evening Standard:

Rail commuters received some good news today when the Government announced that the annual fare rises in January 2013 and January 2014 will not be as high as planned.

The Government had intended to allow train companies to raise the average price of regulated fares - which include season tickets - by RPI inflation plus 3% in the new year and in January 2014.

But Prime Minister David Cameron said that the rise for the next two years will be RPI plus 1%.

.... more ....

Full article here:

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/tran...nment-announces-cut-in-fare-rise-8200986.html

Poltical expedience?

 

[6Gman]

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/tran...nment-announces-cut-in-fare-rise-8200986.html

Poltical expedience?

Yes.

vvvvvvvvv

 

[michael769]

I think the government has been forced to face up to the level of anger that these rises were causing amongst commutters.

 

[Simon11]

At least the government has informed tocs ealier than last year, however why do they make these decisions so late? Tocs knew in august what the percentage increases would be and have started to come up with stategies for january. Then for the last few weeks, they have been setting the fares making sure they are ready. The government has had around 2 months to make a decision and once again their late decison making has resulted in a lot of staff wasting their time for the past few weeks.

 

[route:oxford]

At least the government has informed tocs ealier than last year, however why do they make these decisions so late? Tocs knew in august what the percentage increases would be and have started to come up with stategies for january. Then for the last few weeks, they have been setting the fares making sure they are ready. The government has had around 2 months to make a decision and once again their late decison making has resulted in a lot of staff wasting their time for the past few weeks.

It can't take that much time surely to amend the the top-line value in the spreadsheet to RPI+1%.

Or do the staff sit with comptometers, quills and ledgers?

 

[Simon11]

It can't take that much time surely to amend the the top-line value in the spreadsheet to RPI+1%.

Or do the staff sit with comptometers, quills and ledgers?

It depends on how they decide to price the flows. They could focus on making certain flows have a higher increase with other flows having a smaller increase. There can be several problems which need time to resolve such as limiting split ticketing and ensuring that advance fares are the correct fare level with respect to the full fares.
In summary, if they have a blank increase its fairly easy but if they have different policies everywhere, it could be a challenge!