Protest at Worthing station as rail prices rise

Members of the Worthing West Constituency Labour Party spoke to commuters in the morning and evening on Tuesday (January 2) about Labour’s proposal to renationalise the railways.

The protest came as Southern and Thameslink train passengers buying tickets yesterday were hit by the biggest price increases in five years.

The average cost of regulated rail fares across the country has risen by 3.4 per cent in line with the Retail Prince Index measure of inflation from last July.

Marine ward councillor Beccy Cooper said commuters she spoke to yesterday were ‘not best pleased, understandably’ by the rise in ticket prices.

She said: “With all the problems that we have going on with Southern Rail, these people are in the front line.

“Customers want a good service, they need to be able to get to their jobs or wherever they are going.

“People need to be able to afford to use public transport.

“We are a developing town with more and more people who use the London mainline.

“We owe it to these commuters that these trains run and these fares are not crippling them.”

A spokesperson for GTR said: “As we continue to modernise the railway to give passengers faster, more frequent and more reliable journeys, fares on Thameslink, Great Northern, Southern, and Gatwick Express services will rise by less than the rate of inflation, by an average of 3.33 per cent.

“Southern’s great value cheapest advance fare between London and the coast has been frozen at £5 for the tenth year running, saving over 40 per cent on a super off peak ticket, and the Gatwick Express single fare has been frozen for the 5th year running.

“Accompanied child flat fares are still £2 – half the price of that offered in many other parts of the country – and our DaySave rate has risen only 2.6 per cent.”