I thought we had regulators to stop this sort of thing happening?

I have the misfortune of a three hour journey across Scotland twice a week with First Scotrail. In the course of the past year, these journeys have enjoyed almost 100% unpunctuality, often with far reaching consequences. For which they are to be rewarded with inflationary fare increases !

It beggars belief.

why don’t you just state the bleeding obvious when will those idiots in government look at the amount of subsidy we pay to transport companies and how much profit they make.
We pay bus operators the fuel duty rebate which was set up when the buses were state owned so that they weren’t paying duty to them selves and now when you look at the profits made off the back of the people they include a very large rebate. The rail companies are just as bad we allow them to get away with a crap service and charge what they like Just look at the year on year profits of First and tell me this rise is justified.

More privatisation, anyone?

The triumph of privatisation indeed. But don't fret, all of the "citizen stakeholders" with their shares will be profiting, so that's okay then...

I never travel by rail any more. It is way beyond my means to use it. I prefer to use the Intercity buses and arrange my time accordingly!

In the USA and Europe, rail travel is very much cheaper. How come they can do it, but in Britain, you get gouged for every penny in your wallet??

The article headlines read RAIL FARES RISES TO OUTSTRIP IMFLATION.
Is it possible that inflation is actually much higher than the official figures?

And First Scotrail's Managing Director gets an award for being a Top Scot...

http://news.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=1768482006

"In business, the managing director of First ScotRail, Mary Dickson, won what is the latest in a string of awards. Ms Dickson led FirstGroup's successful bid for the ScotRail franchise in 2004."

What exactly is First ScotRail doing to help Scots?

How does this policy fit in with reducing car travel?
Increasing fares is unlikely to promote increased use of public transport.

Oh dear another scam!
The guys at holyrood are only the ones taken for a ride by these comics.

eh, what sort of company is this? increased passanger numbers means more money should mean lower fares, any buisness knows this.
Not to mention the complete shambles of the policy to decrease CO2 emmisions ' get out your car and use public transport ' why? its probably now cheaper to stay in your car.

Its not called Rip Off Britian for nothing. Everything is exepensive, meaning if you want to buy anything or use any services you have to make your own time , labour , expertise and products expensive. It all goes round in a big circle until everyone is stressed and depressed beyond tablets and self-medicates on fags and booze.

Trains shouldn't have drivers. They should be fully automated. We would thus have single units every few minutes rather than 6 carages an hour, late nitght services & lower running costs.

This would be more useful than endless subsidies.

It is getting to the point that rail travel will be only for the rich.

It is the beginning of the end for mass public transport.

These companies are cretins running a dreadful service, screwing the State for subsidies and their customers for fares, all the time while having the bare-faced cheek to tell us how well they're doing at every turn.

No wonder everyone wants to travel by car. I'd rather give oil companies my money than that lot.

I am afraid that, once again, we need to look to our political masters.
In the last six months, I have spent some time in Berlin and Barcelona. In both cities, there are numerous transport options, ranging from bus, to tram, to rail, to metro. It is clear that politicians there were able to decide that, on balance, cheap publicly funded transport, however much it loses, was preferable to widespread car use and congestion.
So, in Spain, you can do the equivalent of Glasgow to Edinburgh in a train for less than half the price in Scotland. In Berlin, one ticket costing 60 cents (or 40p) gets you from one end of the city to the other, on any mode of transport. Try that one out in Glasgow, where a trip from the west end to the south side is akin to one of the labours of Hercules!
I just fail to see how wee Joke McConnell, and Tony in Westminster can bang on about Co2 emissions, and getting people out of their cars, whilst allowing train companies to reduce services and bump up their prices. Do these people actually understand that the key to the whole car debate is actually providing cheap efficient public transport. Probably not. As ever, the solution to the issue at hand, with the small minded in government, is to increase taxes.
I just fail to see how we have progressed. We pay Scotfail and the like giant subsidies to tell us, wearily "that they apologise for the delay, this being due to the train in front being late" whilst charging some of the most expensive fares in Europe. But hey, that's the free market for ya!

Where do these rises fit in with the 'tax people out of their cars and into public transport' drive. It is simply ridiculous that it is still considerably cheaper for individuals to travel about in thier cars than it is to use our mass transport systems. As someone who has been making weekly journeys from edinburgh to aberdeen it annoys me that the train is more expensive - why should it be more expensive to transport hundreds in the same vehicle than one person in their car?? No other business works like this but then again with the level of subsidies received it is probably wrong to call the rail networks businesses!!

A few weeks ago I was quoted over £300 for 2 folk to go to Northampton for the weekend by rail.

At the end of the day it cost me just short of £150 in petrol in my BMW 735.

While I went to the bother of finding out if I could save the planet and would have done if the price was even close to being reasonable, the difference in cost and comfort was just too much. Sorry folks.

#18 Jack the lad
Don't apologise. The people who are squeezing money out of rail travellers aren't apologising for that, the politicians who are taxing motorists to death to encourage (??) them onto public transport (even if they claim outrageous travel expenses for themselves) aren't in the least bit sorry. In fact this really just goes to show that all they want is money. If it moves - tax it. Oh yes, that's the way to cut down on CO2 emissions and traffic congestion (especially on the Forth Road Bridge) - NOT!!!!!

Yeh , 68 quids to go from Edinburgh to Aviemore , and thats the cheapest weekend return.

In Germany you can cross the country at the weekend for something like 24 quid.

6 quid to go from Den Haag to Amsterdam.

Glasgow Queen Street, they dont knwo what platfrom the Edinburgh train is going to arrive at until 1 minute before it is due to leave. Its been over 100 years now they have laid on this service.

It cannot be difficult. It really cant. I mean cmon , and it costs 17 quid to listen to scotrail adverts all the way and some halfwit slavering into a mobil phone.

Our supposedly deregulated railways are actually licensed monopolies. They operate on a similar system to the Roman tax system. The government squeezes the franchisee for as much as possible, and in turn the franchisee squeezes the traveller for as much possible.

Railways should be like roads - an essential infrastructure paid for by the government with no restriction about who can use them apart from the suitability of the vehicle and the qualifications of the operator.

I'm just glad I have a car (and a very nice one at that).
You would have to be a mental midget to even think of using public transport, never mind paying exorbitant fares for the privelege.
I love my car and love using it. There is nothing that will get me out of it, not even if they made public transport free.
Imagine having to sit with dirty, smelly people everyday and having to endure their inane ramblings on their mobiles (and annoying ringtones that only they find amusing) and the tinny sound of their happy hardcore music blasting out of their "personal" music players.
Maybe they should spray the carriages and buses with disinfectant like they used to do in the olden days in the cinema and maybe instead of showing ads on the TV screens, they could show films about personal hygiene. Top Gear with Jeremy Clarkson could also be shown to show them how the other half live.
The peasants can keep their buses and trains, cars rule.
Vroom Vroom!

#17 Adso

I would think carefully about what you are saying. The New Labour way will be to tax car travel until it is as expensive as rail travel - not make rail travel cheaper.