22nd June 2008
TREBLE TRAIN FARES CRITICISED BY LABOUR CANDIDATE
Labour Parliamentary Candidate for Clwyd West, Donna Hutton, has expressed her concern about Virgin Trains’ decision to treble early morning rail fares to London.
Mrs Hutton said, “I know from personal experience that it is possible to commute from places in my constituency, such as Colwyn Bay and Abergele, and do a full day’s work in London”. However, she fears fare hikes of this sort makes that uneconomic and will harm business – and therefore local jobs - as a result.
Virgin recently put up fares on the early morning service claiming it had to stop travellers boarding in England buying tickets stating that their journey began at a Welsh station. A loophole meant it ends up much cheaper as their journey then appears to start earlier and counts as off-peak.
“What sort of message does it send to the world about how Virgin sees North Wales, if we are made to suffer extraordinary fare increases because of the activities of people in England? What people will think is that Virgin does not care much about Wales, and sees passengers there as expendable”, claimed Mrs Hutton.
Virgin has said this may be reviewed in September. But Mrs Hutton thinks by then the damage will have been done – “Damage to businesses and the way they work, damage to the image of North Wales as a place to do business, and damage to the reputation of Virgin”.
“I am therefore urging Virgin Rail to think again immediately and find other ways of tackling fare dodgers in England”.
ENDS.