Generate an appropriate single-sentence summary for the given text such that it includes the main topic of the text.

Ex Input:
By Richard ScottTransport correspondent, BBC News Railway insiders also warned of "severe overcrowding" on trains. Billions of pounds must be saved from the transport budget as part of the the 20 October spending review, Transport Secretary Philip Hammond insists. Rail users had to share the burden of dealing with the deficit, he said. "We have a huge fiscal deficit to deal with, we have to get to grips with this problem, we're all in it together, we're all going to have to share in the pain," the Transport Secretary, Philip Hammond told BBC News. "There is no group that is going to be able to avoid some of the consequences of the reductions in public spending that are necessary to deal with the deficit." Rising fares The government's transport budget is £15.9bn. The Treasury has asked for two scenarios as part of the spending review - a budget cut of 25% or £4bn, and 40% or £6.4bn. One way to help make those cuts would be to increase fares. This would save the government money because of the way the railways are paid for. Currently, roughly half is paid by the taxpayer, the other half by the fare payer. So if fares go up, taxpayers have to pay less. Changes ahead At the moment, most season tickets and long distance off peak fares are limited to rising by July's RPI inflation figure plus 1%. That would mean a rise of 5.8% in January. But it is a pretty sure bet that the government will scrap that arrangement, and fares will rise much faster. "I'm concerned that fares could rise up to 10%, that some fares might not have any limit imposed on them at all," said the chair of the Transport Select Committee, Louise Ellman. "People might find that peak hours of travel are changed so that they can't use cheap tickets in the way they used to." Old trains In addition to higher fares, plans for 2,000 new carriages across the rail network are on hold. That means big delays for both replacement trains and extra capacity. Much of the rolling stock is already old, with some carriages using slam doors rather than electrically operated ones, and trains at times having covered more than five million miles. This can cause passengers problems, as they sometimes do not understand how to open them. One railway worker said she had to help a distressed older passenger leave the train, because he did not realise he had to lower the window and turn the handle from the outside to get off. Angry travellers As we come out of the economic downturn, the Association of Train Operating Companies expects demand for rail travel to grow by around a quarter over the next five years. That means a double whammy for passengers - paying more to be less comfortable. "I think it's absolutely ridiculous," said Paul Fontaine, a commuter travelling to Paddington station in London. "Why should I be paying for a ticket where I can't even sit down? They wouldn't treat animals like this." Charlotte Bracey agreed. "A lot of my wage goes on train anyway," she said. "I pay as much on trains as I do on rent."

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Commuters face paying hundreds of pounds more for their season tickets, while other travellers face "unlimited" increases, a cross-party Transport Select Committee has warned.


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Hafren Power wants to build an 11-mile barrage between Lavernock Point near Penarth, Vale of Glamorgan, and Brean near Weston-super-Mare, Somerset. But one of the barrage's key supporters Neath MP Peter Hain says the UK government has refused to commit to it. In June MPs said Hafren had failed to make the case that it would be good for the economy or the environment. In a report, the House of Commons' Energy and Climate Change Committee criticised a "lack of information and a perceived lack of transparency" about the proposal. The case for the barrage is "unproven" and Hafren Power "has yet to provide robust and independently verified evidence of the economic, environmental and technological viability of the project", the report said. MPs were warned also about the potential of job losses in nearby ports, and concluded the scheme is no "knight in shining armour" to meet renewable energy targets. The committee said the UK government should remain open to considering a project in the Severn but "far more detail and evidence" would be required to make an informed decision about Hafren Power's proposal. Supporters of the scheme argue the tidal barrage could generate 5% of the UK's electricity. And earlier this year, former Welsh Secretary Mr Hain said the time had come to press ahead and build the Severn Barrage as the proposal has been "studied to death". But speaking to BBC Radio Wales, Mr Hain said: "It (the UK government) refuses to say whether it backs it or opposes it. "In practice it has put it into the long grass and therefore as far as this Parliament is concerned it is dead in the water but not as far as the future is concerned." Mr Hain, who quit the shadow cabinet to back the barrage, said the government was guilty of "stubborn refusal" to engage. "It really made me feel that they weren't interested in it," he added. "It's very, very disappointing because it could have been and still could be under a future government in a future Parliament an absolutely key part of producing our energy security." When the scheme was launched, Mr Hain said the barrage would bring "considerable benefits" to the UK - creating about 20,000 jobs and generating 30,000 more in the supply chain and other parts of industry, giving an economic boost to south Wales and south-west England. The electricity generated would be equivalent to three or four nuclear power stations and thousands of wind turbines, he said. The UK government has been asked to comment.

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Plans for a £25bn barrage in the Severn Estuary are "dead in the water" in the current Parliament, it has been said.


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ANALYSIS by Hugh PymChief economics correspondent, BBC News That was the sobering message from the Bank of England in its latest Quarterly Inflation Report. In essence things look more difficult than they did in May at the time of the last report. A "choppy recovery" is the way the Bank's governor described it. So what's changed? Mervyn King said the financial problems facing governments and banks were headwinds slowing recovery. He said credit conditions hadn't eased up as much as anticipated. In other words, the banks are still busily rebuilding their balance sheets and not loosening the purse strings as rapidly as they might have done. The Budget's austerity measures, the Bank acknowledged, have squeezed its growth forecast. Households may be less inclined to spend because they are worried about public sector cuts. But the Bank does point out that the Budget measures reassured the financial world so market interest rates are lower than they would otherwise have been. That factor supports growth to a certain extent. High prices Inflation will, in the Bank's view, remain stubbornly high because of volatility in commodity prices and the impact of the VAT increase next January. Mervyn King stressed that the Bank had not gone soft on inflation or taken its eye off the ball. If above-target inflation generates higher wage demands then alarm bells will ring in Threadneedle Street. On the Bank's projections, inflation will have fallen back below the 2% target by the end of 2012. But the governor believes there are downside risks to growth. In other words, the Bank's core view is that inflation will fall at the end of next year and growth could well get dragged down. In those circumstances, the Bank might be considering an even looser monetary policy in the shape of more new money pumped into the economy. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) knows it cannot consider easing policy if there is still market scepticism about inflation falling. One of its members, Andrew Sentence, has voted for a rate increase that would constrain prices. And therein lies its dilemma. The natural instincts of many MPC members might be to expand the Bank's quantitative easing policy to prop up lacklustre growth. But that is hardly an option with inflation so far above target. The governor and his colleagues may have to sit on their hands and hope. The dilemma of faltering growth and high inflation will be far from easy to resolve.

Ex Output:

The economic outlook is more challenging - inflation will be higher than expected next year and growth will be lower.


