Simon Calder: We may suffer from the most expensive train tickets in Europe, but we also enjoy the cheapest

 

News in pictures
News in pictures
On Facebook
From the blogs

Disclosure: We’d never even been to a club when we made our first single

For most of us, reaching eighteen years of age opens up a new world for exploration, spontaneity and...

Top of the posts: Drunken rants, the Western Fail and misogyny pushers

The most read blogs this week, as determined by stats.

Sepp Blatter: Penalty shoot-outs must remain, they’re football’s great leveller

As England supporters, we should scorn at any such deciding factor within football. On so many occas...

Why do some men consider the street as a female meat market?

Pronouncements on sexual inequality in the UK are normally met with an eye roll by my generation. As...

A train ticket or an on-the-spot fine? From this morning, some rail passengers would be forgiven for confusing a “walk-up” ticket for the 100-minute Virgin Trains hop from London Euston to Macclesfield with a fixed penalty notice. The fare has risen to £145 – almost a pound a mile for the privilege of exchanging NW1 for east Cheshire.

Such a fare couldn’t happen in Germany – a nation significantly bigger, and which has a faster and more sophisticated rail network than Britain. The maximum fare for any German rail journey is capped at €135 (£112). In France, you could walk up to the ticket desk at Dunkirk– the northernmost mainland station – and hand over the euro equivalent of £145 to travel more than 700 miles, much of it at 186mph, to the southernmost station, Cerbere.

The bleak lineside scenery from Britain’s railways may seem to comprise an embarrassing, expensive shambles. Certainly, a wagonload of shame needs to be showered upon successive governments. They have repeatedly meddled with the superstructure of the railways, yet failed properly to invest – and to tackle the industry’s built-in inefficiencies that make our costs per passenger mile inexcusably high.

As Sir Roy McNulty’s hard-hitting report last year revealed, the Railway Regulation Act of 1842 still allows private landowners to extract “ransom payments” from Network Rail. To replace a station ticket machine involves "at least 10 decision-making stages". And many drivers spend more of their working time on rest breaks than they do on what the fare-paying passenger and the taxpayer actually pay them to do, ie driving trains.

Britain’s 19th-century railway system struggles to meet 21st-century social, economic and environmental targets: enabling commuters to reach their places of work in urban centres; connecting families and businesses; luring motorists from road to rail; and providing mass transportation for everyone from football fans to holidaymakers.

The primary instrument deployed to manage these conflicting goals is blunt but effective: price. And despite the collective despondency that envelops Britain’s rail passengers at each annual round of fare rises, we’re actually rather good at it – a result, paradoxically, of our supremacy in aviation. The UK’s ferociously competitive, efficient and safe airlines place us way ahead of the rest of Europe. Their not-so-secret weapon: revenue management, the art of squeezing the maximum fare out of every seat while leaving as few as possible empty.

Starting with the Anglo-Scottish operators, who saw rail passengers deserting in droves to easyJet, the train companies recognised that artful fare-cutting can fill off-peak trains that – in comparable European countries – run largely empty.

With a bit of flexibility and advance planning, you can find a £12 ticket on a fast and comfortable Virgin express from London to Macclesfield. Among “walk-up” customers, only the most pressed – or those on expenses – will stump up £145 to travel with Virgin when operators such as London Midland will get you there for 60 per cent less. We may suffer from the most expensive train tickets in Europe, but we also enjoy the cheapest.

Commuters urged to show anger over fares

Independent Comment
blog comments powered by Disqus
Career Services

Day In a Page

Patrick Cockburn: I fear this terrible massacre will be the beginning of a long civil war in Syria

Patrick Cockburn

I fear this terrible massacre will be the beginning of a long civil war in Syria
Hardeep Singh Kohli: For me, it is all about 'Gregory's Girl', a record of first love

Hardeep Singh Kohli

For me, it is all about 'Gregory's Girl', a record of first love
Christian Louboutin: 'I don't think comfort equals happiness'

Christian Louboutin interview

'I don't think comfort equals happiness'
Happy birthday, Hotel Babylon!

Happy birthday, Hotel Babylon!

Hollywood's home to the A-list celebrates 100 years of discreet luxury
Rupert Cornwell: Low-rise capital could finally reach for the sky

Rupert Cornwell: Out of America

Low-rise capital could finally reach for the sky
The secret life of the red carpet

The secret life of the red carpet

As Cannes reaches its climax with the Palme d'Or and the celebrities gather in London for the Baftas tonight, Kate Youde and Jack Dean investigate the real star of the show
It's not easy being Professor Green: The rapper, the heiress and a drama made in Chelsea...

It's not easy being Professor Green

The rapper, the heiress and a drama made in Chelsea...
Hardcore, hard-wired: How the prevalence of porn is changing our everyday lives

How porn is changing our lives

It's everywhere - from pop videos to fashion magazines to the theatrical stage.
River Phoenix: the final reel

River Phoenix: the final reel

Twenty years after the actor's death, his last film is to be released
Facebook: The shares shenanigans

Facebook: The shares shenanigans

Investors are crying foul over the huge losses they incurred when the social network site floated on the stock market last week
Up and away – how '7 Up' went global

Up and away – how '7 Up' went global

As the last episode of Britain's '56 Up' airs, the first episode of '28 Up', from the former USSR, starts. Then there's the US, Japan, Germany...
You'll soon pick this up: Tuck into Bill Granger's fresh street food

Tuck into Bill Granger's fresh street food

It provides perfect party fare for some fun in the sun...
All to play for: How is Ukraine shaping up ahead of Euro 2012?

How is Ukraine shaping up ahead of Euro 2012?

Peter Popham casts his eye over the state of the Euro 2012 co-host ahead of the tournament.
Red or not, here they come: Artists reimagine the iconic telephone booth

BT ArtBoxes: Red or not, here they come

Artists reimagine the iconic telephone booth...
The Last Word: Premier bullies devise youth system bound to end in tears

The Last Word

Premier bullies devise youth system bound to end in tears