Running at 200% of capacity, I am and always have been fascinated by trains, from my early years watching the stanier Pacific’s charging up and down the west coast main line, to the arrival of diesels and then electrification! All of that happened under a nationalised railway system as did the Beeching axe which saw 1000s of miles of our rail system abandoned. Privatisation has brought with it problems of supply and demand as well as the normal pressures about paying shareholders an acceptable dividend. The ticketing system is flawed and season tickets are now so high that many resort to using cars and starting earlier and earlier. I remember when my annual season ticket into London cost me £900 it is now £3800, mind you we also bought our house for £57000 next door sold recently for £ 478,000, so on that basis the rise in season ticket prices seems reasonable.
Many of the problems come through having a system which is fragmented, the network and infrastructure remain largely in place public hands whilst The train companies Are privately operated. So who is responsible for expanding services and the network? Labour argues that the whole thing should be under public ownership, that as a result investment would be higher as would wages however ticket prices would be lower, sounds good until a decision has to be made about where and when investment should be made, with so many seeking funds from the public purse why would rail be given it above either health or defense? Then of course there is the unholy row that breaks out when investment is planned ie the Elizabeth Line in London and HS2 such schemed are warranted yet they are so expensive.
My view is that private rail can and does work in certain instances, rises in fares that are in line with inflation are justified, however the percentage of increase when above inflation needs to be seen to be improving things. There are also problems regarding the use of guards on trains, with most trains now fitted with cctv, and the monitoring of trains electronically one has to ask the question of why a guard is needed, if as suggested they retrained to become drivers they would earn more money and relieve the shortage of drivers that has caused so many problems. So where do we go next,our overpopulated island is under extreme pressure which won’t improve until we get the Star Trek transport system, beam me up scotty is the way to go, no car parks motorways ripped up to become wildlife corridors, heaven!