Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the cost to the public purse will be of keeping rail fare rises below the level of inflation until the end of this Parliament.

We know that passengers are concerned about the cost of fares. That is why we have capped regulated fares at the level of the Retail Price Index (RPI) for two years running, and will continue to do so for the life of this parliament. It is also why over the past two years we have reduced the level of non-cumulative ‘flex’, by which operators could in each year increase individual regulated fares above the permitted average, from the 5% introduced by Labour to 2% in 2014 and 0% in 2015, and will continue this 0% policy to stop operators increasing individual fares above the now permitted average level of RPI for the life of this parliament. The fares rise for January 2016 will be based on July 2015’s RPI. The cost to the Government of capping regulated rail fares at RPI+0% for the next five years is estimated to be around £700m (in nominal prices).