Private railways rip off fares

Research undertaken for the RMT transport union shows that passengers on privatised UK trains have to fork out £4.6 billion a year more than equivalent travellers in France, where railways remain publicly owned.

RMT general secretary Bob Crow said: “We already knew that Britain’s railways are the most expensive in Europe, but this study exposes the shocking degree to which UK rail users are being fleeced by the greed and stunning inefficiency of the rail privateers and made to suffer unnecessary overcrowding.

“This study shows that we have a choice – the bleak McNulty-ConDem future of massive fares hikes and a frighteningly de-staffed, overcrowded, and under-maintained network being sweated for profit, or the successful, efficient and eco-friendly model of public investment in a public railway.”