Tubby Isaacs wrote:howsillyofme1 wrote:TechnicalEphemera wrote:
My train service to London is bloody wonderful, as good as anything in the world. Shame it costs more than the planet.
If you want abysmal first world, try the USA some time.
Mate on facebook pays £4500 for London -> Brighton. Can't say he's impressed. His posts to and from work are hilarious....at least 5 delays a week and he has a load of delay claims. I can buy a GA which gives free travel in Switzerland and reduced fares in France and Germany for half that. I know it is a smaller country but bloody hell - twice the price just for a 1 hour (sometimes) journey!
Nice (though not academic level depth) thing on why that is here.
http://www.seat61.com/uk-europe-train-f ... KxfbiusVJs" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
People who will basically use the train anyway (commuters, business travellers, short notice people) are milked. I'm guessing there isn't a lot of space on Brighton commuter trains- so the pricing makes some sense in cash to the Treasury terms, but those commuters pay lots and get overcrowding, which isn't fare. Commuting fares are set by the government.
Tim Fenton thinks this model will become more common in Europe.
As promised the first part of my criticism of the privatised railway (more to come I'm afraid)
• The Cost of Running the Railway has risen alarmingly – 100% in real terms.
The last full year of the non-privatised railway was 1993/94 when total subsidies for the passenger railway (PSO) was £1035.4 million pounds (£930M from central government £105.4M from Local Government) which equated to a subsidy of 3.36pence per passenger mile. Note this includes Scotland.
In 2013/14 total passenger subsidies for the franchise operators was £3,595 million pounds of which £182M is from Local Government which equates to a subsidy of 6.8pence per passenger mile in England , a subsidy of 7.1 pence per passenger mile in Scotland (2011/12 figure) and a subsidy of 12.2p in Wales (2012/13 figure).
So to make it a fairish comparison at (2013/14 price levels) subsidies are approximately (and this is difficult)
Total Subsidy 1993/94 £1797.1 Million as compared with 2013/14 £3,595 Million 100% increase in real terms.
Subsidy per passenger mile in England 1993/94 5.8p as compared with 2013/14 6.8p 17% increase in real terms.
From 1st April 1994 until 31st March 2014 RPI has increased 78% but regulated Train Fares have increased by a minimum of 151% up to a maximum of 245%.
Of course, as is pointed out by those defending these increases, there are opportunities to buy very much cheaper fares in advance & on line. This is great for those who know exactly when they are going to travel or with access to a computer or are ‘savvy’ enough to root around for the best deals. In fact the otherwise excellent Man in Seat 61 commentator Mark Smith uses this as a reason why Britain is no worse off than the rest of Europe. This ignores the fact that exceptionally cheap fares are also available on the best state railways in Europe and usually with less notice and less restrictions whilst on every railway in Europe walk-up fares are always cheaper and most often very much cheaper than a British walk-up fare. Just one example 373 miles Berlin to Munich by the most expensive train (ICE using DBs super new High Speed Railway) is £112, 300 miles London to Carlisle by the most expensive train is £177. Of course cheaper tickets are available on both routes on specified trains purchased in advance but the ones shown above are walk-up fares.
