Never mind a 'shakeup', nationalising the railways is the only way to solve the issues with British trains

Britain’s rail industry is planning a “shakeup” of fares following long-standing criticism of “anomalies” in current pricing systems, which can leave passengers paying peak-time prices for off-peak journeys and having to buy several separate tickets for the same journey in order to get the lowest fare.

Paul Plummer, chief executive of the Rail Delivery Group (RDG), which represents rail firms, said this morning that these anomalies make it “increasingly difficult for rail companies to guarantee the right fare”. But charging the “right” fare is surely the absolute minimum you’d expect of a rail company, especially when that “right” fare is already extortionate.

Any reasonable human will tell you this. Perhaps especially the man who recently managed to buy a car and drive it to Bristol from Crouch End for less than the maximum train fare. He made a saving of £11.29, enough for lunch (and possibly dinner too?) on the way. While it is possible to get tickets for less, the fact remains that unsavvy travellers could have spent the full £218.10 on the train fare, compared to the £206.81 the man spent on buying a car, insuring it and filling it with enough petrol to make the trip.

The logical conclusion to these developments is that everyone will have to buy their own train, and lay their own tracks and drive themselves, because it will be quicker, cheaper and more reliable than the current operators. This situation is surely untenable. But there is a clear way to solve the issue – nationalisation.

RDG’s planned “public consultation” will give customers the opportunity to have their say on price reform, eventually leading to “a report containing proposals for governments to consider”. But incremental fare changes can’t remedy the widespread issues with Britain’s rail services. Radical change is needed.

The private rail industry has experienced a tumultuous few years – in terms of service quality that is, financially they’re doing alright apparently – and has provided us with solid evidence of the pitfalls of rail privatisation.

In 2016, Southern rail for example fully or partly cancelled more than 58,000 of its services, averaging out to roughly 160 a day (the highest cancellation rate in Britain), experienced the worst industrial action since the privatisation of the industry in 1994, and all the while boasted profits over £100m. Capitalism is really great.

This is what happens when public services are at the mercy of free market capitalism – maximising profit becomes the main priority, providing reliable and fairly priced rail travel comes second.

Private rail companies tend to be markedly more punctual with their price hikes than they are with their services. Something has to change.

Part of the thinking behind privatisation was that competing firms in the marketplace would result in cheaper ticket prices. But, as Channel 4’s fact checkers rightly pointed out, that competition was in winning government contracts for particular lines. Once those are won, companies can effectively charge what they want.

Take Virgin Trains East Coast for example. Customers wanting to travel on the northern section of the East Coast Main Line have no other choice but to use Virgin. Therefore, they can charge very high prices that customers will still pay for.

This isn’t an isolated case. Ticket prices have increased dramatically across the board since British Rail was disbanded. The train from London to Manchester for example, saw an increase of 208 per cent between 1995 and 2013. Inflation during that same time period was just 66 per cent.

Shifting around pricing is not going to solve this problem. It goes right down to the fundamentals of how these companies operate. They will always put profit before quality of service.

If RDG genuinely wants to consider public opinion, and provide a better rail service, perhaps it should pay attention to the evidence that’s already out there. In the summer of 2017, a YouGov poll found that 60 per cent of people were in favour of having their railways run by the public sector. A more recent Sky data poll from January 2018 got the same figures.

Reintroducing a nationalised service would put an end to rail companies profiting from customers by using extortionate pricing strategies. For real change and a rail system that’s fair and works for everyone, nationalisation – with the adequate amount of funding – could be the answer.