Nik lives in Essex, UK and works in London as the editor of MacUser magazine. The posts and comments on this site do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions of values of his employers.
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There are just so many things wrong with this plan, it’s difficult to know where to start. Apart from the most obvious point, which I posted yesterday, where pricing people off the roads and onto the trains, then off the trains and onto the roads again will just lead to a massive escalation of prices, you just need to look at the reasons for the overcrowding and the likely impact of the charges to see that it is unworkable.
According to the reports in Metro, the Association of Train Operating Companies says that many services are already running at more than 100% capacity and that ‘there are ideas for increasing capacity with longer trains…’
That’s funny. On my line, some of the morning trains have been reduced from 12 carriages to 8, and some of the most popular evening trains from 8 carriages to 4. No doubt this is so that they can be more crowded, ready for the introduction of extra fees payable for travelling on the most crowded services.
They have also put large gaps into the morning service to let the half-empty InterCity trains stream through the stations without having to stop. Halting one of these just once on its journey to London to pick up commuters at a major station along the way would do a lot to ease congestion and add only three or four minutes to the overall journey time.
But then, of course, you wouldn’t be able to charge the congestion fee.
Very few people have any choice about when they travel, as they have to be at work at a particular time. Charging more for travel will either force them into the cities to live, raising inner-city prices yet further while inducing a slump in the suburbs, or lead to greater demands for pay rises, hence inflation, hence… higher prices. My ticket costs
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