To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how train fares have changed on average over the last 10 years; and what assessment he has made of the effect on the number of people travelling by train. (129677)

Fares regulated by the Department for Transport cost on average 2 per cent. less in real terms today than in 1996. In that period, passenger numbers have grown by over 40 per cent. with more than a billion passenger journeys on the railway for the first time since 1959.