TODAY rail passengers face the misery of an above-inflation fare rise of 4.6 per cent. As if this weren’t bad enough, it comes against the background of some of the worst train performance for years, with the system bedevilled by lateness, strikes and cancellations. Not to mention a byzantine fares structure that few can understand.
This weekend The Times reports that a miserable average of 544 trains are being cancelled every weekend with figure rising to 10 per cent on local services across the north of England. Getting a train is now so unreliable and expensive that more and more people are deserting to their cars.
We’re told that everything is going to change with Labour’s new nationalised “Great British Railways” due to come into being soon. But don’t get too excited. Britain’s worst train company – Northern Rail – is already run by the state. The best performing firms – Lumo and Hull Trains – are run by private outfits outside the franchise system on an “open access” basis.
Meanwhile, the taxpayer is pouring £400 a second into rail subsidies and train travel in Britain descends into an ever-more chaotic lottery.
