Train fares are a shambles – without fair pricing the railways are set for a painful decline

The only possible way to preserve the network at its present level – let alone fund increased services – is to entice people out of their cars, argues Simon Calder

Fair fares? Rail ticket prices continue to rise faster than inflation (Simon Calder)

Yesterday, a one-way rush-hour ticket from Bristol to London would have cost £115. Today it is £3.40 more. But the Department for Transport (DfT) insists that it could have been worse.

“Rail fare rise capped below current inflation rate” reads the headline of the DfT press release that heralded the 3.8 per cent increase in fares across England and Wales . With Retail Price Index (RPI) running at 7.8 per cent, passengers could in theory have been made to pay £9 more.

Whether the percentage is zero, 3.8 or 7.8, it is entirely academic, since nobody sensible would dream of paying a figure like that for a journey of 118 miles. Fortunately, as all regulars on Brunel’s magnificent line between London Paddington to Bristol Temple Meads will know, the “Didcot Dodge” cuts the price by better than 40 per cent.