| Public Transport |
| The issue: |
You will know this arithmatic already, but I have a business meeting at 09.00 on a weekday just off Warren Street underground station.
Including the cost of parking my car at Andover Station, the return travel cost will be £56 and I will possibly have to stand for most of the journey.
If I take my car, the cost will be £24 plus parking (in Regents Park at £20).
Is this really the best the train operators can do? Is this the best that Prescott and his successors can do? Is no one really committed to a public transport service so efficient and so economic that it can make savings in greenhouse gas emmissions?
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| Date Issue Raised: |
08 Apr 2008 |
| My response: |
Many thanks for the email and of course I understand the force of the economic argument you put forward. (I think one needs to factor something into the equation for the absence of the hassle of driving up to London in the rush-hour, and, usually, the saving in time if one goes by train.)
For meetings that are off-peak, and for holders of railcards, the costs are about half the ones you quote and so rail begins to compete on cost grounds.
All I can say is that, when I was Secretary of State for Transport, I pegged rail fares to RPI-1 whereas they are now RPI+2.
I am in touch with South West Trains about capacity from Andover in the morning peak.
Best wishes, George Young
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Sir George Young Bt MP: Constituency and Parliamentary Website