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From The Socialist newspaper, 6 January 2016
UK's private rail fares six times public rates
Dan Smart
Workers in Britain spend six times as much of their salaries on privatised rail fares as Europeans who use publicly owned services, a new study has shown.
Research by trade union campaign Action for Rail has found UK passengers spend a whopping 13% of their pay packet on travel. Compare this with 2% in Italy, 3% in Spain, 4% in Germany and 10% in France.
The £375.90 monthly season ticket from Chelmsford to London would cost just £37 for the same 29-mile distance in Rome, where rail is publicly owned.
Rip-off
Prices have been rising above inflation for more than a decade. The latest annual 'rail rip-off day' increased fares by a further 1.1%. Mick Cash, general secretary of transport union RMT, said people in Britain would "awake to another kick in the teeth from the greedy private train companies."
It is no surprise, then, that an overwhelming 62% of the population think that fares are exorbitant and support renationalisation of the railways.
Action for Rail estimates that, by taking rail franchises and their vast profits back into public ownership, passengers and taxpayers could save £1.5 billion over the next five years.
We could also use part of these resources to solve overcrowding and ageing infrastructure.
Jeremy Corbyn has pledged to take railways back into public ownership - but only as contracts expire. This will take years, prolonging the misery and risking leaving the job half done.
Corbyn should take up the Socialist Party's demand: renationalise all public transport immediately, with compensation paid only on the basis of proven need.
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The coronavirus crisis has laid bare the class character of society in numerous ways. It is making clear to many that it is the working class that keeps society running, not the CEOs of major corporations.
The results of austerity have been graphically demonstrated as public services strain to cope with the crisis.
The government has now ripped up its 'austerity' mantra and turned to policies that not long ago were denounced as socialist. But after the corona crisis, it will try to make the working class pay for it, by trying to claw back what has been given.
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In The Socialist 6 January 2016:
What we think
2016: Crisis-ridden capitalism will meet with bitter mood of resistance
No retreat on resisting council cuts!
Socialist Party news and analysis
Support junior doctors' and student nurses' action
Another black man shot dead by the police
UK's private rail fares six times public rates
Birmingham Labour to axe at least 1,200 jobs in £165m cuts onslaught
UK wage growth will be lowest since 1920s
NHS England chiefs block hospitals from publicising emergencies
What we saw: Sadiq Khan's promises on London transport
Socialist Party feature
Floods, climate change and capitalism
Carlisle Socialist Party's action plan on floods
Profit system exacerbates flooding
Tories' hypocritical green policies pledge
Renationalise the water industry
International socialist news and analysis
No government majority as Podemos partially recovers
Workplace news and analysis
Union action needed to defeat attack on student nurses
Nationalise rail now! Rail workers strike around the country
Steel: public ownership needed as private buyers threaten pay and pensions
Condescending Tories savage Yorkshire fire service
Socialist readers' comments and reviews
Dark comic book fantasy throws light on abusive relationships
"I chose to be involved in politics, Michael Crick"
Socialist Party reports and campaigns
A 'People's Budget' to defeat cruel cuts
Stop the closure of Calderstones hospital!
2015 marks best fighting fund total this century!
Eleanor Marx: celebrate a life of struggle for socialism
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