Crow calls for low fares on railway

[Steve]

The leader of Britain's biggest rail workers' union is to call on the Government to make sure fares are low enough to encourage people to switch from cars to trains.
Bob Crow, general secretary of the Rail Maritime and Transport union, will tell MPs fares on publicly owned railways in Europe were a fraction of those in this country.
Speaking ahead of appearing before the Commons Transport Select Committee, Mr Crow said: "Fares should also be easily understood, but the fragmentation of the industry means that operators offer a bewildering array of structures, and they appear designed more to confuse than enlighten.
"We need a fares and ticketing structure designed to encourage people out of their cars and on to trains and a joined-up transport policy capable of delivering extra capacity to cope with the extra demand.
"Our environment and economy need a growing railway, not a shrinking one, and we need to make rail the number-one choice.
"Bringing all train operations back in-house would not only result in a more coherent railway, but would also put a stop to the leakage of £1 billion of public money out of the industry every year."

[rogerdell]

I won't hold my breath, infact I seem to have read somewhere that French Railway workers are fighting privatisation plans and if it goes ahead, my guess is it will mean the end of huge subsidies on fares