A group of Rushers joined forces outside Waterloo station this morning with the Campaign for Better Transport, TSSA, Unite, Action for Rail and Bring Back British Rail. We handed out flyers and spoke to commuters on their way to work and unravelled glorious banners calling for affordable rail fares.
This afternoon the rail fare increases that will come into force in January 2013 will be announced. The government will be allowing train operating companies to charge us another 3% on top of RPI inflation and on some journeys we could be paying an extra 11% on top of our already prohibitively expensive fares, pushing the cost of some commuter tickets to over £5000.
At Climate Rush we love travelling by train and we want to be able to afford to choose green ways to go on glorious adventures, or at least to get to work or university. In the UK we pay some of the most expensive fares in Europe, and we also have some of the poorest air quality in Europe too. We can help to clean up the toxic air we’re forced to breathe in city centres, and reduce our carbon emissions, by choosing to use trains instead of cars but only if we can afford to use them.
The Guardian has written a handy guide to saving some money on train journeys. If you’re keen to act for affordable transport there’s plenty you can do. You can come along to one of our weekly meetings by emailing us at [email protected] have a peek at CBT’s website or Bring Back British Rail, organise an action at your local rail station, speak to your local station manager or send a letter to Justine Greening, our Secretary of State for Transport.
Tags: air pollution, Bring Back British Rail, climate rush, fairfares, FareFail, fares, trains, TSSA