Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to reduce the cost of rail fares.

The Government has frozen regulated rail fares in line with inflation for the seventh year in a row. In addition, we have already cut costs for thousands of young people with the 16-17 Saver railcard, will be rolling out a new Veteran’s Railcard to give over 830,000 former service personnel, who do not otherwise benefit from discounted rail travel, up to a third off their rail costs. We have announced our intention to establish a new fares trials fund to explore the benefits and costs of a clearer, more flexible and fairer fares system. Fares revenue is crucial to funding day-to-day railway operations and the massive upgrade programme we are delivering, all of which benefit passengers.