First strikes, now cheap tickets are at risk: How much more can rail passengers take?

Passengers are being chased away by everything from strikes to short-notice engineering work, writes Simon Calder

Wobbly bridge: Nuneham Viaduct in Oxfordshire, where the rail link from Reading to Oxford crosses the River Thames (Network Rail Western)

Twenty million people in the UK do not have access to a car. Millions who do drive would, often, prefer rail to road. But after 25 years of steady growth and improvement in train services to the start of 2020, the rail network is sliding into a steep spiral of decline.

The revelation from my colleague, Jon Stone, that the typical 12-week window for buying advance train tickets could be cut to just eight weeks, reveals one more hurdle for the rail passenger to navigate. Network Rail, which is seeking approval for giving less notice of engineering closures to train operators, is also unable to “operate, maintain and renew” at the current funding levels.

Add in strikes – with one in 10 days affected by national rail walkouts in the past year – and the failure to reform train fares – and the attraction of cars, buses and planes intensifies.