Bowker's Law says there are only two sources of railway funding - from the fare box and the tax payer.
The Public Accounts Committee have kindly provided last year's figures for these.
In 2006/07, passengers paid £5.1 billion into the fare box.
Whilst the Department for Transport gave £3.4 billion to Network Rail and a further £1.7 billion to the Train Operating Companies.
Total amount of our taxes spent on the 'privatised' railways in 2006/07 = £5.1bn
Total amount of our taxes spent on the nationalised railway in 1993/94 = £1.46bn (figure corrected for inflation).
Nice work if you can get it
Go-Ahead increase in pre-tax profits - 19.1%
Increase in London Midland off peak fares - 15%
Go-Ahead carries 30 per cent of the UK's rail passengers. Mostly on commuter routes - a captive market.
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