Metro fares to soar 6pc

WHILE Oldhamers wait for Metrolink to arrive next year, fares will increase by around six per cent on average next January.

Although individual prices for the Oldham service have yet to be fixed, members of Transport for Greater Manchester have agreed a Retail Price Index (RPI) plus one per cent formula, rejecting a Tory move to freeze fares.

Metrolink director Philip Purdy said the increase would cover increases in operating costs and support the massive expansion programme.

Fine details of the increases were discussed behind closed doors but only after Conservatives on the committee failed to win support for a bid to hold fares at their present level.

Salford councillor Brian Garrido said families faced real hardship with pay freezes and redundancy. “We are all in dire straits,” he said.

There will be no increases to weekend, family or child tickets.

TfGM chairman Councillor Andrew Fender said it would be “downright wrong” to pay for Metrolink by cutting funds for other forms of transport.

“For passengers, there is no ideal time to increase fares but any change will always be the least it can be to meet the growing costs of running, improving and expanding the network,” he said.

“All the money we raise from fares goes back into the network in some way, but Metrolink is no more immune to inflation than anyone else and the Retail Price Index, which is the benchmark for the annual fare review, indicates how much costs and prices have changed in the past year.”

A report by Mr Purdy pointed out that diesel and petrol prices have increased by around 16 per cent over the last year and the Government is allowing regulated rail fares to increase by RPI plus 3 per cent — about 8 per cent -— in January.

Chief executive David Leather said: “The majority of funds in relation to Metrolink expansion are already contracted.”