Autumn Budget 2024
The chancellor Rachel Reeves has announced that road fuel duty is to be frozen next year, and the 5p reduction for each litre introduced by the last government will continue. However, regulated rail fares will rise by 4.6 per cent on 2 March 2025, one percentage point above RPI.
HS2 tunnelling to London Euston will be funded, and the Transpennine Route Upgrade is to go ahead in full, with further electrification including Church Fenton to York (Colton Junctions).
East West Rail is confirmed in full between Oxford and Cambridge.
There will be upgrades to stations at Bradford Forster Square and Manchester Victoria,.as well as funding for West Midlands Metro to Brierley Hill and upgrades for trams in Sheffield. Still in Yorkshire, Leeds trams are also going ahead.
Subject to an industry proposal, the government will agree a £5 increase in the price of most rail cards (except the disabled person’s rail card).
Industry reactions have started to come in.
Rail Partners chief executive Andy Bagnall said: ‘Government should set fares at a level that will ultimately encourage more people to travel by train in the future, helping to secure the long-term financial sustainability of the sector and capture the wider economic and environmental benefits of rail for the nation as a whole. The focus must be on growing passenger numbers, not making current passengers pay more.
‘While today’s road fuel duty freeze will be welcome news for motorists, holding it flat since 2010 has made it more difficult for rail freight to compete with road haulage.
‘Rail Partners and its members welcome the rail investments announced in today’s budget including funding for tunnelling to Euston, which helps keep open options for HS2 in the North.
‘Filling the capacity gap left by the cancellation of the northern section of HS2 is still essential if we are to encourage more people to travel by by train and to unlock freight capacity to reduce congestion by moving goods off the roads and on to the railway.’
National Infrastructure Commission chair Sir John Armitt said: ‘We welcome the government’s plan to invest over £35 billion in economic infrastructure in 2025-26.
‘Linking Old Oak Common and Euston is fundamental to the viability of HS2 so we welcome funding for the tunnel connection, which should help secure the maximum economic benefit from the investment already made in the project. The question of how to boost connectivity and capacity beyond Birmingham remains to be answered, and the National Infrastructure Strategy should set out how government plans to address this long-term challenge.’