Are rail fares in the UK unfairly priced?

The price of rail travel has risen far above inflation since privatisation of the railways in the 1980s. However, this price hike has done nothing to deter the even faster rise in the use of the railways, particularly by commuters. This is partly because of the weight of car traffic that has traditionally made driving into big cities, particularly London, very unpleasant and slow. Ken Livingstone, as mayor of London, also introduced the congestion charge in the early 2000s, making it more expensive to drive into London. At the same time he used the mayoralty to suppress the cost of travel on buses and undergrond trains within London.

However, commuting to London remains incredibly expensive. Last year it was found that the average cost of commuting with a season ticket (the cheapest option) was over 10% of most workers' wages. Added to this the journey lengths (which are often disrupted by cancelled trains or problems on the line) and the lost free time or late starts at work and it feels very much that commuters are being required not just to carry the cost of bringing their labour to nearby cities (something that London absolutely depends on to survive as a commercial city) but also to accept that the cost of their free time wasted in transit is calculated by the government and economists as being zero (not to mention added childcare costs when they are unable to get back when anticipated).

Recent disputes on the Southern Rail network have caused many who commute on that route to consider or go through with career changes because they have found the disruption too much of an unacceptable impact on their lives. On a smaler scale this can be found replicated all over the country.