Going by train? You'd better walk!

Train fares will rise by up to 10 per cent in the new year.

The rises were announced just before Christmas by Michael Roberts, chief executive of the Association of Train Operating Companies.

General fares would rise on January 2 by an average of 5,9% while regulated ones, which include season tickets, will go up by an average of 6%.

Mr Roberts said he understood that a lot of people faced financial difficulties but money raised through fares helps pay for new trains and better service and the industry is also looking to limit fare rises over the longer term. He also claimed the rises would ease the burden on general taxpayers for running the railways.

Even though rail travellers will return to work in January to face inflation-busting fare rises, they are luckier than occasional passengers.

In fact, while season tickets rises are capped at one per cent above the rate of inflation this year, there is no limit of prices for most other tickets.

Christmas shopping is cheaper than ever

To make the sale happening retailers all over the UK have to make high discounts before than Christmas.

Many firms have already launched their after-Christmas sales. Argos, Body Shop, Debenhams, French Connection, Gap, John Lewis, Marks & Spencer and many others have all started their winter sales ahead of what are expected to be the two most lucrative days of the year. They hope to empty shop floors and warehouses containing mountains of stock.

A report by accountant RSM Tenon released yesterday paints a bleak picture of the state of the high street.

According to the document 13 per cent of retailers, nearly 9,000 are at high-risk of going into liquidation.  

Even more worrying data released on the same day showed UK shopper numbers for this week are lower than the snow-affected period last year.

Consumers are surely happy to save some money just before Christmas.

However, many shoppers who bought early were furious to find goods they had already bought reduced by up to 80 per cent.

Nightlife in central London will still be affordable

Plans to charge motorists to park in the evening and at weekends have been scrapped until after next summer’s Olympics.

After the furore that has met Westminster’s proposal to introduce fees from next January, the council leader Colin Barrow announced that the parking rules would be delayed until after the Games.

The decision followed a High Court judge’s pronouncement to allow a judicial review of the plan amid warnings it could cost £800million in lost businesses and 5,100 jobs.

Restaurants, pubs, high-street businesses, churches and Government ministers have condemned the measure among fears it could hit the central London economy. New parking discounts for workers and businesses were announced on Tuesday under a deal with National Car Parks in order to deflect attacks on Westminster council’s tax on nightlife. But the victory for campaigners came after the High Court judge’s decision.

Westminster council plan consists of measures intended to abolish free parking on single yellow lines and parking bays after 6.30pm during the week and between 1pm and 6pm on Sundays. Mr Barrow insists it is a bid to ease evening congestion and not an ‘inappropriate’ way of making savings. 

Following the decision to postpone the charges, the mayor of London Boris Johnson has promised Tfl will be working with Westminster on measures to combat congestion.

The move would have meant removing almost 2,000 free spaces from the West End and could have lead to a disastrous clash with the diamond jubilee and the Games.

Bendy Buses farewell

London’s bendy buses will not be seen in the capital’s streets anymore after the 207 from White City to Hayes Bypass made a final journey today.

Mayor Boris Johnson called them “bulky and ungainly monstrosities – more suitable for the wide open vistas of Scandinavian airport than for London’s narrow streets” and was glad to see the back of them.

The bendies were also the fare-dodgers’ favourite, as passengers could jump on the single-decker buses without getting their ticket checked.

Transport for London said the scrapping of bendy buses was expected to save more than £7 million annually as fare evasion became difficult, but it will cost £2.2 million to convert the 29 and 207 routes.

In fact, the 350 scrapped bendies have been replaced with 500 new vehicles, 50 of which are hybrid diesel-electric double-decker buses.

The Liberal Democrats said the replacement of the articulated buses, which could carry up to 140 people, compared to about 85 on a double-decker, meant capacity on the 12 routes had fallen by between five and 26 per cent.

We should expect more crowded bus journeys in the near future, then.

London’s old bendy buses, which Mr Johnson began removing in 2009, are already in use in Leicester, Merseyside and in the Mediterranean isle of Malta.

The Mayor of London had also opted to replace some of them with a new version of the expensive Routermaster, which will start running at the beginning of 2012.

Bendy buses were introduced in 2002 by Ken Livingstone as a way of moving large numbers of passengers amid soaring bus popularity, but they became unpopular by blocking streets and leaving travellers feeling queasy in the rear-facing seats.

Pricey nightlife in the West End

The cost of West End parking fees could become prohibitive from next January.

Westminster council leader Colin Barrow wants to abolish free parking on single yellow lines and parking bays after 6.30pm during the week and between 1pm and 6pm on Sundays. The council is planning to charge up to £4.80 an hour in the West End up to midnight on weekdays and on Sunday afternoons from January 9, 2012.

Council leaders say it is a bid to ease evening congestion.

But Government ministers, the capital's main employers, small shop owners and unions have condemned the measure as a revenue-raising raid on motorists that could stop people from driving to the West End. 

The Mayor of London Boris Johnson last week called on Westminster council to abandon plans for a nightlife tax on central London after other cities warned of parking fees negative economic impact on many businesses.

People who go to Soho, Covent Garden and Mayfair in the evenings and at weekends generally leave their cars and go to restaurants, bars, pubs, cinemas or theatres. If the council makes it consistently more expensive to have a night out in central London, people will go elsewhere.

And most worrying of all is the impact on jobs, as many places and firms could face closure.

On the high street things are already looking a bit shaky and with the current economic climate, these parking charges could be injurious to the city’s economy.