Hollow greetings on tracks

Published 6 Jan 2012 18:50 0 Comments

NEW YEAR greetings between rail commuters returning to work this week can rarely have seemed more hollow.

Any sense of optimism for 2012 must already have dissolved in the knowledge that whatever pay rises might be in the offing, they will be outstripped by increases of up to 10% in rail fares which, by some distance, are already Europe's highest.

Sadly, they ain't seen nothing yet, because rail industry experts predict further increases in May and September, which should successfully put a blight on the summer too.

We have, of course, long since given up hope of seeing the integrated transport policy spoken of in those far off days when John Prescott's strangled syntax was still promising joined-up government.

But arcane fare structures and major infrastructure improvements cannot disguise the fact that rail travel is now a necessary luxury rather than an affordable essential, unless of course a secret plan exists to force commuters back onto the roads.

However, without passengers the evolving redevelopment of Reading Station will lose much of its glamour.

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