The car is still king! Ridiculous train fares make them look like absolute bargains
When I'm not happily driving cars, I'm a grudging train passenger who's regularly ripped off, let down or disillusioned by this much-hyped strike-prone public transport. The customer experience is so underwhelming that my confidence in, and respect for, Britain's heavily subsidised rail industry has rarely – if ever – been lower. Advertisement - Article continues below
I'm not sure if it's me giving up on the train or the train giving up on me. Either way, the 'alternative to the car' is as implausible now as it was in the nineties, when notoriously hypocritical Transport Secretary John Prescott (a user of two Jaguars) told me to tell you, dear reader, that the train would soon take over as the preferred mode of transport for the average Brit. This was as blatantly untrue then as it is now, not least because the cost of rail travel is exorbitant.
Travel from, say, Cardiff to Aberdeen and the standard single/one-way fare is from £285.50 – more than many flights from the UK to the Far East. People in central London doing short journeys can pay up to £15 per mile. In the Stratford quarter of the capital, passengers can pay up to £2.21 per minute on the fastest trains. A standard annual season ticket from Ebbsfleet, Kent, to St Pancras, 20 miles and minutes up the line, costs £6,000-plus. Add £1,815 for a yearly parking pass and an extra £2,000 for tube or taxi fares and we're talking £10,000 or more per annum. That's enough to buy a used car, refuel petrol tanks for several years, or charge an electric car at home for well over a decade.
If tickets weren't so prohibitively expensive and responsible for preventing freedom of movement among low-paid workers, students, shoppers, holidaymakers and cash-strapped folk seeking jobs, social lives or both, they'd be comical. But current Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander can still deliver some rail-related hilarity – as she proved with her performance on 25 May, when her Government began renationalising rail services.
'Today marks a new dawn for our railways,' she enthused during her away-day on the first renationalised train from London's Waterloo station. Further promises included 'moving away from 30 years of failing passengers', who now get 'higher standards'. She has to be the funniest Transport Sec cum stand-up comedian since Two Jags Prescott.
How so? Because her highly symbolic train ride couldn't be completed by, er, train. It took her four times longer than scheduled. And it was completed only after passengers were embarrassingly turfed off and ordered to complete their journeys in dreaded rail-replacement buses which, in my experience, are even more unpleasant (if that's possible) than iffy trains or railway lines.
If Britain's highest-ranking transport politician believes that this latest fiasco and wallet-busting fares represent 'higher standards', she's more out of her depth than I feared.
Trains too expensive in your area? We can help you find a great deal on a new car instead ...
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
BBC News
33 minutes ago
- BBC News
Social media time limits for children considered by government
The government is considering introducing tougher online safety measures to limit the amount of time children can spend on social media, the BBC include a two-hour cap on the use of individual social media apps and a 22:00 curfew, as first reported by the Sunday People and the on the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme, Technology Secretary Peter Kyle said he was looking at the "addictive nature of some of the apps and smartphones", when asked whether time limits would be considered. But an online safety campaigner has accused the government of delaying bringing in new laws to protect children. Ian Russell, whose daughter, Molly, took her own life at 14 after seeing harmful content online, said: "Every day the government has delayed bringing in tougher online safety laws we've seen more young lives lost and damaged because of weak regulation and inaction by big tech."Mr Russell, who backed the previous government's Online Safety Act, said only "stronger and more effective" legislation would "finally change the dial on fundamentally unsafe products and business models that prioritise engagement over safety.""Parents up and down the country would be delighted to see the prime minister act decisively to quell the tsunami of harm children face online, but sticking plasters will not do the job."Kyle told the BBC he had not been able to speak publicly about the government's plans to toughen online safety laws because legislation passed by the previous Conservative government in 2023 had yet to be enacted."This year we've had illegal content that needs to be taken down, but in July, age-appropriate material must be supplied by platforms, otherwise there'll be criminal sanctions against them," he told the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg said that he had been looking carefully at what government needed to do next to "nail down harder" on safety, "understand what a healthy online life for children" looked like and "stop the barriers" towards achieving that. In January, Kyle told the BBC that laws on internet safety were "very uneven" and "unsatisfactory", following calls from campaigners to tighten the minister expressed his "frustration" with the Online Safety Act but did not commit to making changes to the legislation.A Whitehall source later told the BBC there were no plans to repeal the act.
BBC News
39 minutes ago
- BBC News
How Palace are fighting to keep European dream alive
Crystal Palace are anxiously waiting to hear whether their European dream is over before it even begins. Winning the FA Cup - the Eagles' first major trophy triumph - resulted in the south London club qualifying for the Europa League, the club's only qualification into continental football in their 164-year whether Palace can start planning for European football is in the hands of governing body Uefa, who must decide whether the Eagles have breached its rules on teams under one multi-club ownership structure competing in the same European final ruling will centre on American businessman John Textor, owner of Eagle Football - which holds a 43% stake in Football also owns a 77% stake in French side Lyon, who - like Palace - have qualified for next season's Europa BBC Sport outlines the details of Palace's defence as they fight for their European lives. Palace deny operating multi-club model Uefa's regulations are in place to prevent collusion between clubs. At the heart of Palace's argument is that their historic FA Cup win and consequential European qualification was an achievement accomplished entirely on their own are insisting they are an entity that operates entirely independently, and not within the structures of a multi-club with knowledge of the situation have told BBC Sport that Textor's personal share in the Selhurst Park side does not meet the 30% threshold - which is key in Uefa determining decisive influence - and that he has just 25% of the voting rules state that "no individual or legal entity" can hold a majority of shareholder voting rights at two clubs in the same European it is understood Palace have made clear they had no assistance in winning the FA Cup, in that they have not collaborated with Lyon since Textor's original investment into the club in August 2021 and will have no connection with the French side during next year's Europa Premier League side are believed to have pointed out that there have been no transfers between the clubs since Jake O'Brien, now at Everton, left Palace for Lyon in August also say there has been no employee, backroom staff or coach sharing, no dialogue, no collaborative strategy, no combined partnerships, sponsorships or commercial deals and no collective scouting, analysis or software is accepted, and been widely reported, that chairman Steve Parish and his leadership team make all final decisions in relation to the management and operations at working structure has existed for a decade and is supported by fellow shareholders Josh Harris and David Textor, who only has one vote, has publicly spoken about his lack of influence at Selhurst Park."As proud as we are to have been a part of the resurgence of Crystal Palace, it remains true that Crystal Palace is an independent club, run by a man with a steady hand, who has achieved a level of sustainability that is incredibly uncommon in today's Premier League," said Textor in May 2024."An integrated sporting model, such as ours at Eagle, is simply not a perfect fit for Crystal Palace."It has been pointed out to Uefa that Textor is an individual and minority shareholder and, when he first invested into Crystal Palace in 2021, he owned no other clubs and his investment into other teams followed takeover over Lyon was confirmed in 2022, 16 months after he secured a stake in Palace. Textor could resign as Palace director Under Article 5 of Uefa's rulebook, which relates to the integrity of the "competition/multi-club ownership", a club is required from March 1 2025 to have complied with the requirements necessary to prove they are not "simultaneously involved in any capacity whatsoever in the management, administration, and/or sporting performance of more than one club participating in a Uefa club competition".In the past clubs have sought to divest the stakes of key shareholders with a view to complying with Uefa's example, the City Group, Ineos, Red Bull group and most recently Nottingham Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis have adapted their shareholdings in clubs accordingly to ensure their teams can compete in the same European year Ineos, which owns Manchester United, put its shares in French club Nice into a blind trust to ensure both clubs could compete in the Europa League last made a similar move earlier this season by placing its ownership of Swiss club Lausanne-Sport into a blind trust, before a potential conflict in the 2025-26 rules regarding the March 1 deadline are clear - and clubs have sought to comply with the regulations and cut-offs. A template for Palace to follow is in Palace are understood to have made clear that Textor's position means he cannot be enforced by the club to place his shares into a blind trust, owing to a lack of legal authority, unlike previous precedents where a single entity owns multiple as has been well documented, effectively holds the deciding vote at Palace with the backing of Harris and Blitzer, so existing shareholder agreements would need to be altered to enforce a blind trust scenario - which is not within the club's power and infringes on Textor's property is also a sense that the chain of events that have left Palace's position in European football in jeopardy were unforeseen and is a factor towards why they failed to meet the deadline for ownership faced Millwall in the FA Cup fifth round on March 1. Since then they beat Champions League clubs Aston Villa and Manchester City en route to winning the side Strasbourg conceded a 90th-minute goal on the final day of the season to hand Lyon the final Europa Conference League spot, before Paris St-Germain later won the French Cup to elevate Lyon into the Europa Uefa rules that Lyon and Palace cannot both compete in the Europa League, regulations state that the French side will play in the competition because of their higher league that scenario Palace could play in the Europa Conference League, but even then there is the added complication that Danish club Brondby, who have qualified for the Conference League, are owned by Harris and missed the deadline, Palace have expressed to Uefa that they are prepared to take immediate steps to comply with their with knowledge of the situation have told BBC Sport that one of those measures includes the resignation of Textor as a director of Palace, which would mean he will have no influence in any capacity. 'Europa League ban is disproportionate' It is understood Palace are arguing that banning them from the Europa League would result in a disproportionate sanction and unfairly punish the club, players, staff, fans and local thoughts are that preventing the club from competing in the Europa League next season would result in an injustice, particularly given their breach is technical and that no competitive harm has is believed Palace also feel that refusing them a place would contradict the promotion of football's development that ensure that "sporting values always prevail", as per Article 2 of Uefa's sources are indicating that Palace believe a fine or temporary oversight measures - for example the monitoring of transfers - would appropriately punish a breach, without harming stakeholders who have no involvement in the ownership is expected to confirm its decision in the coming weeks.
Times
an hour ago
- Times
Rachel Reeves's public finance plan ‘like that of Steve Jobs at Apple'
Rachel Reeves will turn around the British economy like Steve Jobs turned around Apple, the technology secretary has argued. Peter Kyle likened the chancellor to the Apple co-founder who took the tech company from the brink of bankruptcy to become the most valuable in the world. He argued that an £86 billion injection in science and technology due at the spending review would lead to iPhone-style innovation in Britain and turbocharge growth. Reeves is still battling senior cabinet colleagues over cuts to key budgets needed to fund an increase in defence spending and a £30 billion boost to the NHS. She is also expected to increase the budget for schools by £4.5 billion. Kyle said that the police and other services resisting cuts needed to 'do their bit' to help turn around the country. Looser fiscal rules would give Reeves £113 billion a year more borrowing to invest, which she was expected to direct towards infrastructure and research designed to stimulate the economy. After £40 billion of tax rises in the autumn budget, Kyle said the spending review would allow Reeves to invest 'record amounts of money into the innovations of the future.' 'Just bear in mind how Apple turned itself around. When Steve Jobs came back to Apple, they were 90 days from insolvency. That's the kind of situation that we had when we came into office,' he said. 'Now Steve Jobs turned it around by inventing the iMac, moving to a series of products like the iPod.' He told Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips on Sky News: 'Now we're starting to invest in the vaccine processes of the future. Some of the high-tech solutions that are going to be high growth. We're investing in our space sector. All these really high, highly innovative sectors.' Jobs returned to Apple in the mid-1990s and released a series of products over the next 15 years that revolutionised communications and set the company he co-founded on a path to becoming the most valuable in the world. Apple is worth more than £2 trillion, compared with Britain's GDP of £3.8 trillion. Kyle told Times Radio: 'We are investing into those key innovations of the future. We know that we cannot break this vicious cycle of high tax and low growth by doing the same as we always have done. We have to innovate our way out of this and we are doing so by investing in those high-growth sectors.' • What we'd do in Reeves's shoes — by Hunt, Zahawi and Mel Stride However, an increase in investment comes alongside a squeeze on day-to-day spending, with Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, still holding out over cuts to the police and Angela Rayner, the deputy prime minister, over council budgets. 'We expect the police to start embracing the change they need to do, to do their bit for change as well. We are doing our bit,' Kyle told Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg on BBC1. 'You will see the priorities of this government reflected in the spending review, which sets the departmental spending into the long term. But this is a partnership. Yes, the Treasury needs to find more money for those key priorities, but the people delivering them need to do their bit as well.'
