To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what assessment she has made of the effect of recent rail fare increases; and what recent discussions she has had with ministerial colleagues on developing a rail fares policy which takes into account more fully the interests of passengers and the environment. (179161)

In the absence of specific grounds for doing so, the Department has made no formal assessment of the recent increases in unregulated fares. However, we keep unregulated fares under review.

The Department continues to listen to the representations of train users and has invited passenger focus to take a greater role in commenting on the specification of future franchises.

This Government want to encourage people to make more informed choices about how and when they travel. As part of our strategy to give people an alternative to travelling by car and meet our environmental obligations on CO₂ emissions, we are putting record investment in public transport. The Government are investing £88 million in the railway each week and with over one billion passenger journeys last year, we now have the fastest growing railway in Europe.