The total amount paid in fares by rail passengers has doubled since privatisation to more than £5 billion a year. But the total subsidy has risen even faster, reaching £6.3 billion last year, four times what British Rail received in a typical year. (Source: The Times)
If there were every any figures to damn the whole idea of rail privatisation, it must be these. Perhaps that’s why the government wants to see prices climb still higher: ‘the higher the prices, the lower the subsidy’ seems to be the theory, but the simultaneous hikes detailed above do little to support it.
Without clear information on the cause of these spiralling costs, we can only put them down to inefficiencies, for while the network is carrying 150% of the number of passengers British Rail once did, it is costs three times as much to get them anywhere. That can’t be right.
So while the government currently caps the rises on season tickets and cheap-rate fares, it looks set to dismiss calls for the practice to be extended into the future, which could lead to increases of up to 30% for season ticket holders on some routes. That would price many passengers out of their jobs, unless they were to move closer to work, or work from home.
The government’s argument?
‘The reality is that 6% of the population travels on railways. So why should people who don’t use railways regularly fund the people who do?’
Perhaps because it’s because of this lack of proper funding that only 6% of people use the railways in the first place. Give them the subsidised funding they require, reduce ticket prices, increase capacity and build news lines, and passenger numbers will rise, particularly off-peak.
Sometimes you have to wonder whether the government’s green commitments are little more than hyperbole.
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