Editorial Bear

Fares increasing 'to ease rail overcrowding'
Tuesday January 2, 08:32 AM

The Government has been accused of driving up rail fares in an attempt to ease overcrowding on the network after prices rose by more than inflation for the fourth successive year. Full article here.

Maybe I'm just getting grumpy, but one of the things that's always annoyed me about Britain are the trains.

Slow. Expensive. Unreliable. Public transport in this country is a complete joke. It costs £40 return to go to London from Winchester. For that money, you could travel from Paris to Nice on a train that goes at over 200mph.

The railways are just in a shocking state. But our government has been increasing tax on petrol and cars in order to inspire more people to use public transport and ease the gridlock on our roads (try driving into Winchester on the M3 at 8:30am on a Monday.)

And then we hear the government is hiking up fares to decrease overcrowding... What the hell?

Yes, there is overcrowding on the trains. Catching an express up to London during rush hour is like being squeezed into a smelly sardine tin (with music provided by a hundred zillion Nokias going off every five minutes.)

But the alternative is... Well, not driving. If you drive up to London in takes hours and then you have to pay a whopping £8 Congestion Charge to that itinerate crook Ken Livingston. Plus, if you can find parking in Central London that costs less that £40 a day, you're still living in 1984.

The fact is, there are no alternatives.

The government doesn't seem to realise that if you hike up the prices on both routes into the city, you ARE going to cut overcrowding - by making it too prohibitively expensive to travel.

Like so many recent government solutions, these policies seem to have been instigated by people who have simply no idea how the real world works.

Now I'm no socialist, but I honestly believe the mistake was in privatising the railways. In France, the government sponsored SNCF, the Syndicate National Chemin de Fer, runs an incredibly efficient railway system that provides quick, reliable and affordable transport across the nation. The ability to shift freight quickly and inexpensively by rail has reduced corporate dependance on lorries and trucks and helps keep the well maintained roads clearer.

In New York - in the heart of the most capitalist nation in the world - the public transport is run by the Metropolitan Transport Authority. A public benefit corporation which still manages to profitably offer affordable and reliable public transport into and out of New York City and the surrounding areas. NJ Transit is the New Jersey authority responsible for offering cheap and regular trains into the city from the suburbs of the Garden State.

It just strikes me that if the most aggresively socialist nation in the West and the most aggresively capitalist nation in the West can both get their heads around providing cheap and affordable rail transport, why the hell can't we?

Britain led the world in rail after the industrial revolution... But now our rail infrastructure is in a shocking state. SOMETHING needs to be done - but driving another nail into the coffin by hiking up the fares is not the answer.