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Time to stop pricing people off our railway
On the eve of the TUC in Manchester, MICK WHELAN makes a plea for the Conservative government to show some common sense
Mick Whelan

THERE are some weird people around. Well, people with weird ideas. Take James Price of the extreme right-wing think tank the Taxpayers’ Alliance.

When the Labour Party called for a freeze in fares last month to help hard-pressed families, he said, quite frankly and quite brutally, that, as a hard-nosed free marketeer, he thinks it is absolutely right to try to price people off trains.

“It would be wrong to announce any kind of rail fares freeze, as it would hurt rail users, as well as taxpayers, who subsidise rail in the UK whether or not they use trains. Taxpayers would be subsidising wealthier rail users to the tune of more than £1 billion over a parliament if fares were frozen and rail users would suffer a worse experience from more crowded trains and more delays.

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