Rail fares on Rye’s troubled Southern line between Brighton and Ashford rose by an average of 1.8 per cent on Monday, January 2, just as the latest round of strikes by rail unions RMT and ASLEF were set to cause misery for commuters.
A monthly season ticket from Rye to London rose to £501.60; a high-speed monthly to £601.80, and peak-hours returns to Ashford and Brighton rose to £8 and £21 respectively.
A spokesman for Southern defended the rises: “Tickets have been pegged to the July 2016 1.9 per cent rate of inflation on which fares are based, however, by rounding down rather than up to the nearest 10p, the average increase is 0.1 per cent less than the rate of inflation – and quite a lot less than the national average increase of 2.3 per cent.”
He added: “Under our contract with the Department for Transport, money from our ticket sales is passed to the Government which also regulates season ticket prices and the cost of other major tickets.”
As a small consolation, from December 11, 206, the 30-minute limit on passengers’ delay-repay claims has been reduced to 15 minutes and more claims can be made accordingly.
Meanwhile, after a three-day strike over the New Year, the next set of stoppages is set to begin. The original six-day strike announced for January 9-14 was on Wednesday (January 4) split into two three-day stoppages, on January 10, 11 and 13 and then on January 24, 25 and 27. However, Southern announced on Wednesday that they will be running a limited number of buses between Hastings and Ashford on January 10, 12 and 13. Follow this link to the timetable on their website.
Adding to commuters’ difficulties, on non-strike days, services are liable to be affected by unplanned cancellations and delays. Southern announcements have suggested these are caused by industrial action. Yet on trains from Rye on Tuesday, January 3, the day on which most commuters returned to their jobs, staff on the ground insisted crews were sitting at depots waiting to work, while Southern announced cancellations or shortened journeys for the very services for which the crews had turned out.
However a Southern spokesman said: “Because of the ASLEF overtime ban, we have had to reduce the number of trains we can run. Due to the complexity of drivers’ work patterns, this means some may be spare for part of their shift. We are using these drivers where possible to move carriages into position for each day’s service or will run additional shuttles where we have trains available and can offer a robust service.”
Additionally, commuters have been frustrated by the disappearance of the half-hourly shuttle services at peak times between Rye and Ashford. They were removed on July 11, 2016 and replaced by buses. The service was then restored in October. But last month they vanished from the timetable with no explanation.
Southern shifted the blame firmly onto their staff. “The Rye shuttles have been removed until further notice,” said the spokesman. “This is due to the ASLEF union drivers’ overtime ban. We are constantly reviewing this revised timetable to see where we can make improvements, but it looks very much that as long as the overtime ban is in place, these trains will remain removed.”