Train fares to rise, biggest rise since 2013

Fair or not? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-42234488

Considering these train companies are subsidised to the hilt by us as tax payers already this is at best a slap in the face, at worst a cause to fire bomb their offices.
The fact I can fly to Macedonia and back twice for less than it costs to get the train into London is frankly offensive, especially as the quality of service is one of the worst in the world.

Not actually true, the way subsidies work mean that as a collective the TOCs are actually paying the government (commuter routes generally get subsidised but they're more than offset by the mainlines). The vast majority of the subsidy goes to the state owned network rail with TfL also receiving IIRC 700m.

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Considering these train companies are subsidised to the hilt by us as tax payers already this is at best a slap in the face, at worst a cause to fire bomb their offices.
The fact I can fly to Macedonia and back twice for less than it costs to get the train into London is frankly offensive, especially as the quality of service is one of the worst in the world.

Not fair, not fair at all.

Why? The train fares increase, but it doesn't really improve anything unless you are going straight from a big city to another big city, and don't want to stop at any of the smaller stations.

Those that use the smaller stations, such as myself, will feel completely ripped off.

I use the Midland Mainline on a regular basis. The smaller stations, such as Wellingborough, Kettering, Bedford and Luton Airport, only have 1 train per hour to the North (to stations such as Leicester, Loughborough, Nottingham), and require a change at Leicester to places such as Sheffield, Derby, Lincoln etc. Luton customers have no through trains to the North (unless they want to go to Corby) and must change at Bedford, Wellingborough or Kettering to go further north.

On the journey south, the 1 through train per hour (departing Leicester at xx:32) is very busy, especially during peak periods, when standing room is the only option between Leicester - Kettering (at the very least). It is only 4 or 5 coaches long, and should be much longer to accommodate the amount of passengers that require this train. 1.5 coaches of this 5 coach allowance is "1st Class" - which is almost always nearly completely empty due to the inflated/ridiculous/ludicrous prices that are already being charged for 1st Class. (On a typical Wellingborough - Leicester journey, for a university student with a 16-25 railcard, 1st Class is 2.5 times the cost of a Standard Class ticket.)

Some of the interchanges are very poor currently - for example, anyone wishing to travel from Corby to north of Kettering (i.e. Mkt Harborough/Leicester/Nottingham etc) must wait for 58 minutes at Kettering. Similarly, travelling south, the connection time is very tight and any delays on the xx:32 (from Leicester) of over 6 minutes (by the time it reaches Kettering) results in a missed connection, and a comparable wait time.
Further, anyone wishing to travel from south of Market Harborough (except London, of course) to East Midlands Parkway has to wait for close to 40 minutes at Leicester. These wait times for connecting trains are very poor.

Oh, and let's not forget the fact that East Midlands Trains charge £4 per journey for Wi-Fi, and that you can't get a phone signal in the trains due to the reflective coating in the windows.

So, based on the above, is it fair that train tickets are going to go up again? Absolutely not - in fact, they should go DOWN, not up.

Various companies reprint historic rail timetables. If you look at one you will see that the train service is the best it has ever been. There are few places where the number of train services is not at an historic high.

You have card that takes a third off the cost of a standard ticket and you complain that the cost difference between your discounted standard class ticket and the full price first class ticket is too high.

If prices went down, who would pay for the service improvements you desire, the magic money fairy?

Out of interest do you have any links to support these claims, its not that i doubt you but i wouldn't mind reading up on the matter)

I think the salient point though is given the abysmal state of rail services in the UK why on earth should people be press-ganged into paying higher ticket prices for absolutely no determinable benefit? Especially when half of the money goes to pay shareholders undeserved dividends.

Again, more falsehoods, only 3% of revenues end up as profits so half clearly doesn't go to shareholders, in fact investment and wages make up a fair bit over 50%. As for the abysmal state it isn't actually something corroborated in user satisfaction which is among the highest in Europe

As you can see in 2016 the performance premium (basically being charged for doing better than expected) outweighed subsidies (paid when not doing as well as expected, except in the first three years where they are not paid) by £800m

I agree that trains are expensive but why are you surprised it is cheaper to fly? All you need to fly is a plane, two pilots a cabin staff or two and a subscription to air traffic control. Tains require massive infrastructure that must be maintained at the most expensive time of day and a workforce of expensive signallers to keep things running.

Last time i checked planes require billions of pounds of investment in terms of airframes , airports, runways, taxes, fuel etc. etc. Whilst trains require infrastructure as well, to my knowledge, that is still all owned by the state through NetworkRail such as the tracks and service vehicles. With that being the case why should one pay more for it when it's already funded by the tax payer..?

It's time to re-nationalize the railways.

No it's not time.

Last time i checked planes require billions of pounds of investment in terms of airframes , airports, runways, taxes, fuel etc. etc. Whilst trains require infrastructure as well, to my knowledge, that is still all owned by the state through NetworkRail such as the tracks and service vehicles. With that being the case why should one pay more for it when it's already funded by the tax payer..?