Local MSP Colin Smyth has hit out at the rip-off rail fare rise that will hit passengers in Dumfries and Galloway.
Regulated rail fares increase in line with the retail price index. As a result, a season ticket fare on the Lockerbie to Edinburgh line will cost £5250, an £162 increase. The Lockerbie to Edinburgh route will continue to be one of the most expensive on the whole of the railway network and local passengers will be hit hardest as a result of the rail fares increase.
Other routes in the region will suffer an increase. The Lockerbie to Glasgow route will see a £109 increase with the Dumfries to Glasgow route suffering a £138 increase.
Services from Dumfries to Annan and Carlisle will also see an increase of £41 and £76 respectively.
Colin Smyth MSP thinks it is simply unfair that passengers in Dumfries and Galloway are burdened with these rip-off rail fares.
Colin Smyth said, “These rail fare rises are unwanted, unwelcome and unnecessary. It is simply unfair that commuters in Dumfries and Galloway are being burdened with these rip-off rail fares for less than satisfactory services.
The cost of rail fares being paid by passengers in Dumfries and Galloway is simply unacceptable with passengers between Lockerbie and Edinburgh having to fork out £5,250 to travel to and from work. On the Nith Valley line we see increasing fares which could price passengers out of using our railways at a time when more people may use the railway to get to work.
It’s high time working people stopped having to pay such excessive fares to simply line the pockets of private companies. Only Labour is fighting for a publicly owned railway which will serve the many, not just the few.”
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