HC Deb 11 February 1970 vol 795 cc370-2W
Mr. Wellbeloved

asked the Minister of Transport whether the Government have yet reached a decision on the National Board for Prices and Incomes' Report on British Rail Fares in the London Area; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Mulley

Yes. The Government accepts the conclusion of the Report that it would be reasonable at this stage for a fares increase to bring in some £5 million a year to be implemented; even after such an increase I shall be paying grant for the network in 1970 of the order of £12 million to £15 million.

On the form of the increases, the recommendation of the N.B.P.I. was that a differentiated fares structure should be adopted. After discussing a number of factors, including the additional cost of providing extra peak capacity on various routes, the social cost implications of various fares patterns, and the requirements of regional planning, the National Board concluded that the first of these, the additional cost of extra capacity, was the most immediately quantifiable and should therefore be an important factor in shaping the current increases.

The Government accept that the pros and cons of a differentiated price structure should be examined, taking into full account the various factors identified by N.B.P.I. Studies will be undertaken by the Railways Board in consultation with my Department. But the Government are satisfied that it would be wrong to adopt now a differentiated structure based primarily on one of several complex factors. It has therefore indicated to the Railways Board that there is no objection to their going ahead at this stage with uniform overall fares increases in the London area, yielding some £5 million, as they had proposed.

For the longer term, the Government accept that, on the basis of the latest financial forecasts set out in the Report, the target of financial viability for the London Commuter network by the end of 1972 set out in the White Paper "Transport in London" should be reviewed. This will be a matter for discussion between by Department, the Railways Board and the Greater London Council.