Discussion
Jaglover said:
What is most important is not rail fares in isolation but the total cost of the railways. A big chunk of rail spending comes from the tax payer as a subsidy and I think that has risen markedly as well since Labour came to power.
It's about three times what it was before privatisation, which was done by the Tories, for ideological reasons, badly, and in a rushed manner to ensure that the incoming Labour government would be presented with too much of a fait accompli to be able to reverse it. Perhaps if they'd realised that the incoming "Labour" government would in fact be only too happy to carry on with the Tory privatisation ideology they wouldn't have rushed it so much...
Pigeon said:
It's about three times what it was before privatisation, which was done by the Tories, for ideological reasons, badly, and in a rushed manner to ensure that the incoming Labour government would be presented with too much of a fait accompli to be able to reverse it. Perhaps if they'd realised that the incoming "Labour" government would in fact be only too happy to carry on with the Tory privatisation ideology they wouldn't have rushed it so much...
I think the main cost increases have been caused by the partial reverse of that privatisation with the setting up of Notwork Rail.
FunkyNige said:
ffs, that means it will be cheaper for me to hire a car to get from Leeds to Oxford than taking the train!
The top-gear comparison is more valid today than it was then. In that one they bought, insured and MOTed a car, drove it to their destination for less than the train tickets cost.
That doesnt work unless its a long journey and there are a few people (was it 4?) but its still ashocking comparison.
Jaglover said:
It's about three times what it was before privatisation, which was done by the Tories, for ideological reasons, badly, and in a rushed manner to ensure that the incoming Labour government would be presented with too much of a fait accompli to be able to reverse it. Perhaps if they'd realised that the incoming "Labour" government would in fact be only too happy to carry on with the Tory privatisation ideology they wouldn't have rushed it so much...
I think the main cost increases have been caused by the partial reverse of that privatisation with the setting up of Notwork Rail.
That's actually made things slightly better in terms of the day-to-day subsidy as opposed to the one-off cost of making such a drastic change, due to things like simplification of systems and bringing maintenance in-house, though it has yet to make full progress in that direction. The roughly-three-times figure, being an approximation, was "close enough" before the Railtrack->NR transformation and is still "close enough" after, so far anyway and my feeling is that it'll be "close enough" for some time yet.
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