►►Welcome to Britain, where rail fares are among the highest in the world: A rail passenger reacts in horror to the £48 price of a single ticket from London to Bury St Edmunds. On board a train, another passenger says the £323 for her ticket, bought onboard, is "an absolute rip-off". These were scenes from BBC TWO's programme The Railway: Keeping Britain on Track◀◀
The road lobby was delighted today (20 March 2013) by Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne's decision to scrap a 2p fuel duty increase that should have been implemented in September.
The Budget move will cost the Treasury £450 million in 2013/14 and £810 million in 2014/15 at a time when it is desperate to raise revenue. It means that fuel duty has now been frozen for nearly three and half years.
However, the road lobby is already complaining that it did not get enough in the Budget and is annoyed that road building schemes have been "kicked into the long grass". Professor Stephen Glaister of the RAC Foundation said he was disappointed although Mr Osborne said he was "spending more on new roads than in a generation".
A more sensible response came from Stephen Joseph, chief executive of the Campaign for Better Transport. He said: “Freezing fuel duty does nothing to help the millions who rely on public transport. It is scandalous that George Osborne has once again failed to support public transport.”
David Powell, economics campaigner at Friends of the Earth, said: “The driving force behind rising petrol prices is the soaring cost of oil. The sensible long-term plan is to protect motorists from rising fuel prices by weaning our transport system off its oil dependency.”
Rail campaigner Andrew Long said: "It is now a glaring anomaly that rail fares were allowed to increase by RPI + 1% in January. Those using rail are being penalised, while those using cars are cushioned."
Mr Osborne mentioned rail only once in his Budget speech. He said: "We are already supporting the largest programme of investment in our railways since Victorian times." He failed to mention that rail users are footing a large part of the bill.