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Rail Fares and Franchises

That is exactly right. Some train companies have introduced super-saver fares to persuade the Government that they need not worry so much about off-peak fares. As soon as the train companies have their way on off-peak fares, the super-savers disappear or become almost unobtainable. We must be careful. Train companies are using their flexibility on unregulated fares to the maximum to push them up in a completely unhelpful way. There is a serious issue of regulation for the Government in how they deal with the comparison between regulated and unregulated fares. There is a case for introducing a ratio, so that walk-on fares never cost more than a certain multiple of the pre-booked advance fare. That might be one way to deal with the problem. Things certainly cannot be allowed to carry on as they are. There is another issue—it is a techie issue, but Passenger Focus raised it with me yesterday—about the distribution of ticket moneys. I understand that an incentive exists for the train companies to sell advance fares because they keep the money, whereas they have to share more of the money from walk-on fares. I do not understand how that works, but it certainly seems to be an issue. If it is true, there might be a case for saying that the train companies should keep the money from the walk-on fares and share the money from the advance tickets. That might be a better way of encouraging them to keep walk-on fare prices down. The fares issue will not go away. It will be the biggest inhibitor of train travel in the years to come. It would be tempting for a Government of no matter what colour, faced with a difficult financial situation after the next election, to push up rail fares to skew even further the balance between what the passenger pays and what the taxpayer pays. That would also be a way to limit business on the railways to restrain the clamour for further enhancements. That was British Rail's policy back in the 1970s and 1980s. We do not want to return to those days. Social desire for mobility, the environmental case and the business case all demand an expansion of the railways at a price that people can sensibly and realistically afford. That needs a change in Government policy to ensure that the railways do not simply become a plaything for those who are better off than the people who use them now.