Time to end weary media ritual of bashing railways over fares

As regular as mince pies and  comes the annual Christmas ritual of the media bashing the railways over fare rises – always handy to mop up a few column inches as the Silly Season kicks in. But this year it looks especially silly as rail fares for 2014 have been kept down to a n average of 2.8%. Yet some addle-headed newspapers can’t get out of the habit of kicking the railways anyway – as in last night’s London Evening Standard coverage. No wonder newspaper circulations are going down as fast as use of the railways is rising.