Coventry railway station to increase ticket prices

The price of train tickets from Coventry train station are set to go up by an average of 2.3% on January 2 2017.

This has raised fears that some people will no longer be able to afford travelling from Coventry’s railway station.

The station has already undergone other price increases this year. In August, the cost of off-peak parking went up, meaning certain passengers were paying 140% more for parking.

Lianna Etkind of the Campaign for Better Transport warned in the Coventry Telegraph that some passengers are “finding themselves priced off the railways.”

She added: “The train operating companies and the Government need to work closely together to provide fairer, simpler and cheaper fares making sure people are always sold the cheapest ticket available.”

Between 1995 and 2016, train fares have been increased by an average of 23.5%. Ms Etkind advised that train operators and the Government need to do a lot more to make railway travel affordable.

She also accused the Government of taking too long to develop flexible season tickets with “fair discounts” for the 8 million UK part-time workers.

Opposed to the fare rise, Siôn Simon, Labour’s candidate for West Midlands Mayor, commented in the Coventry Telegraph: “For far too long, decisions about our transport systems in Coventry have been made by politicians in London. Their interests are not ours.”

Paul Rimmer, Chief Executive of the Rail Delivery Group representing train operators and Network Rail, said in the Coventry Telegraph that they understand how passengers feel when train prices increase.

“We know that in some places they haven’t always got the service they pay for.”

However, Mr Rimmer justified the price hike, saying: “Around 97p in every pound passengers pay goes back into running and improving services.

“Fares are influenced by government policy, either through government-regulated fares such as season tickets or as a result of the payments train companies make to government.

“This money helps government to support the biggest investment in our railway since Victorian times.”