The only thing perfect about the UK rail industry is the storm that threatens it

Service are reaching a tipping point – between a future of more flexibility to meet the changed needs of traveller and a slide into a spiral of decline, argues Simon Calder

Train travellers need to be encouraged to keep using rail facilities (PA Archive)

The name of the station in a small market town somewhere in Britain is unimportant. But what happened when I walked up to the booking office on Tuesday afternoon to buy a ticket to the nearest city is significant: both for the outlook of the rail passenger, and for the taxpayer’s preparedness to pay for a transport service that is as incoherent as it is expensive.

No fewer than three people were, to use the term loosely, working in the ticket office at station X. I don’t for one moment begrudge them – nor the fact that every single staff member working on the railways has, according to the transport secretary, Grant Shapps, had their job protected during the coronavirus pandemic.

I just genuinely wonder how their day is filled, and whether they might enjoy more satisfaction – and farepayers and taxpayers more productivity – in other roles on the railway?