There’s always...

There’s always been something fishy about the grubby, litter-strewn, graffiti-stained world of public transport and some of the people who exploit it for financial or political gain. But the nasty smell that has traditionally oozed from and hovered over this dubious, massively subsidised industry is turning into an insufferable stench.

Why does the State continue to hand out billions to rail barons when the likes of TVR, Rover and MG got next to nothing?

Why? Well, I’ve just got my hands on a newly released document from the industry, which says fares have risen by 18 per cent since 1995, after taking inflation into account. The report also predicts prices will increase by a further 30 per cent by 2015. That’s not only shocking, but downright appalling.

Owners and operators of mass transit vehicles have been portrayed as good guys, in a position to rescue us from the monster known as the car. If these entrepreneurs didn’t ask for, and receive, preferential treatment, if they paid their own way, rather than blag multi-billion-pound State hand-outs, and if their major concern was to offer a genuine public service, I wouldn’t have a problem. But these fare rises and future hikes show their motives and sense of ‘social duty’ are more selfish. The priorities for these hard-nosed people seem to be increasing profit and squeezing more passengers into less space.

The fact is that the residents living in the majority of households in Britain depend on themselves, friends and family to get about. These 50 million men, women and children are largely self-reliant. And yet the mass transit industry, awash with countless billions from fare income, subsidies and property interests, can barely cope with the comparatively tiny remainder of the population totalling only about 10 million. But, aided and abetted by local and central Government, the already wealthy hypocrites who ‘run’ the dubious, saturated train industry still attempt to displace adults and kids from the comfort and guaranteed seats/seatbelts of their family cars.

They try to pretend that a windy, unmanned railway platform that doubles as a urinal for drunks, vandals and muggers is a better and safer place to be than the locked, heated car interior. And then, even if you do manage to get a seat on the train, do you really want to be boxed in by a kebab-eating Ali G or Vicky Pollard type? Train travel should be getting better, easier, more affordable and cleaner. But it’s getting worse, more difficult, dirtier and more expensive. Trains are still derailing, seats are harder to find, and now fares are set to rocket.

Meanwhile, thanks to motor industry efficiencies and reduced margins for dealers, some new cars can actually be purchased today for considerably less than they cost years ago. And at the same time, those cheaper, safer cars drink far less fuel and emit lower levels of CO2 than before.

Yet ever-increasing numbers of customers paying through the nose to occupy trains to and beyond the point of full capacity means that fare income is inevitably and massively up, which, in turn, results in even higher profits for rail entrepreneurs. So why are the prices they charge increasing sharply, not dropping steadily? And why, oh why, is the gullible Government continuing to give billions in hand-outs to these wealthy rail barons, when the likes of TVR, Rover and MG got next to nothing from the Treasury when they recently collapsed? These are all questions I’ll be posing to our new PM, Gordon Brown, at the earliest opportunity. I’ll let you know his reply. Discuss here