Labour’s shadow transport secretary has failed to rule out that fares could become more expensive under Labour’s plans to nationalise the railways within five years.
Louise Haigh repeatedly dodged questions on whether ticket prices could rise, saying there were no “plans” for increases.
In an interview with the BBC’s Today programme Ms Haigh said she could not promise to lower fares.
Asked if fares could go up, Ms Haigh said they would be “simpler”, and she could not say which journeys would be cheaper.
Pressed again, she said: “We have absolutely no plans to make them more expensive”.
Her plans would allow ministers to make “significant savings” which would allow them to make fares “more affordable” she said.
Under Labour’s plans for the “biggest overhaul to our railways in a generation” it would transfer rail networks to public ownership within its first term in office.
This would see existing private contracts taken into a new body, Great British Railways, as they expire.
Labour says the plans would nationalise the network “without the taxpayer paying a penny in compensation costs”.
Under the reforms Great British Railways would be responsible for rail infrastructure and awarding contracts to operate trains.
But the body would be led by rail experts rather than ministers and civil servants in Whitehall.
Labour also plans to establish a watchdog, the Passenger Standards Authority, to hold GBR to account.
Later in a speech in central London, Ms Haigh said it was Labour’s ambition to make fares more affordable.
She said: “I can’t today set out that we will lower fares, not least because they are incredibly complex and regulation needs reform as well.
“But we have said that we will simplify them, that we will make them more accessible, more transparent and more trustworthy for passengers.
“At the moment passengers have to contend with a dizzying array of different types of tickets and fares and it means they simply don’t trust that they are getting the best value for the journey.”
She added: “Obviously our ambition would be to make fares far more affordable but we really think that one of the things that is keeping passengers off the railway at the moment is the fact that they simply don’t trust or understand the way fares are modelled and that is why simplification is our first priority.”
The Conservatives said Labour’s plans were unfunded and left open questions about the cost to taxpayers.
Defence minister James Cartlidge told Sky News: “Privatisation led to a doubling of the number of people using our railways. It has been a significant success story, huge investment from the private sector.
“But as I said, if that investment hadn’t come from the private sector it has to come from somewhere, and it would have to come ultimately from taxpayers.
“I think that is the key question for about this policy: How much is it going to cost taxpayers? At the moment it is unfunded.”
