From our Swindon Correspondent:
From CityAM,
Commuters are set to be offered flexible season rail tickets as a part of the government’s bid to try and get people back to offices by summer.
The new flexi-tickets will reportedly be introduced by 21 June when England Covid restrictions are due to end and could save commuters hundreds of pounds a year.
…
It comes as UK rail fares are set to rise by 2.4 per cent tomorrow as a part of a yearly increase.
The UK taxpayer has helped prop up rail companies this year, with £10bn set aside to help struggling service providers.
Let me get this straight….
The government is introducing a scheme because they can see demand for rail commuting falling, but they’re raising prices? Did any of these PPEs skip the E part? Isn’t supply and demand one of the first lessons?
I get why Swindon to London cost £140 return or £280 for a weekly season ticket before all of this. The trains were busy at that price, so it makes sense to keep asking that price. But the government is clearly recognising that the demand for rail is going to fall. The supply is roughly the same.
And what does all of this say about those HS2 estimates that the men at the ministry have? Are we still going to have a capacity problem between Euston and Rugby by 2025, or not?
But trains are GREEN!!!!
We never were facing capacity problems on the WCML. That was invented by the ‘projections’ of ‘consultants’ being paid by HS2 Ltd to manufacture justification for their gravy train, after all their initial justifications had been disproved (time savings ≠ cost savings, etc.) The fact that it hasn’t yet been cancelled stinks to high heaven.
ah yes, the ever moving targets. It was time saved, then it was capacity and now it’s about freeing up other lines.