Ticket to be taken for a ride?

Telegrammed by our Independent Expert
My old colleague Simon Calder rallied to the defence of rail fares in his Indy column this weekend.

But I fear he misses the point.

It's fine to claim there are bargains to be had, but in this deflationary world they are simply not good enough.

It's all about public perception. My petrol is cheaper, my gas bill fell last week, my mortgage is down, I can name my price if I want a new car. Last week I booked exactly the same summer holiday for my family as last year but it is £300 cheaper.

By contrast train fares seem to most people to be extortionate and inflexible.

Last week I went from Preston to a meeting in Carlisle, a couple of stops up the WCML. My standard class one-way ticket cost the best part of £30. My colleagues, using their cars on the M6 for around a fiver, thought I was insane. And come to think of it maybe I was.

Oliver Price from Chislehurst, published on the Telegraph letters page last week is more realistic than Simon Calder.

He says: 'You highlight the scandalously high cost of rail fares. I can only endorse this. Since the rise in the cost of tickets coincided with a lowering of petrol prices it's now cheaper to drive to my work in Chiswick (about 20 miles) than to take the train.'

Rail buffs still chant the mantra about 'managing demand'.

But what demand?

I'm posting this on the almost empty 10:46 Euston to Lancaster.

Privately I hear that Virgin first class bookings are down by thirty per cent.

Well it may be even worse - there were probably as many ticket staff at the barrier as there are passengers in all four first class coaches this morning.