goddamn rail prices rising again!!!

[El Rojo]

sweet motherfuck! as if they didn't cost enough already

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/nov/23/rail-fares-rise-next-year
:cursing: :cursing: :cursing:

average 6.2 increase next year, on top of existing increaes, with more to come. Looks like we are returning to a world where the poor stay in thier own town as they can't afford to travel.

Is there any concrete was of getting around this? I know some people don't buy a ticket and hope for the best, and some others lock themselves in the loos and count the stops, but both of these options are passive.

How about a deliberate non-payment method in protest to this holding to ransom? How would the rail company deal with this? Does anyone know what the conductors do if one does not have a ticket? I know they tell you that you have to get off the train, but if you refuse? Also, would any unionised rail workers be sympathetic, like the RMT?

[Comrade Wolfie's Very Nearly Banned Adventures]

It is a joke when it's cheaper to fly from manchester to london that it is to travel by train.

[El Rojo]

hahaha really? if easyflights are still about then i may give it a go

[Comrade Wolfie's Very Nearly Banned Adventures]

hahaha really? if easyflights are still about then i may give it a go

I think so, it's something like £60-70 for a train depending on how you go/when you go/who you go with. Cheaper by plane I belive, havn't looked into it much, don't like london.

[thriller]

Here in Wisconsin USA we are trying to get a light rail to connect the two metropolitan areas (Madison and Milwaukee) but our new conservative govenor is refusing to allow it to continue. He goes on the assumption that everyone has a car so who needs a train system. Wish we could get a fucking train system in the US.

[Quail]

I think any refusal to pay would have to be en masse, because otherwise I think you'd just get a fine. Rail prices are already fucking outrageous, even if you book way in advance. I know a lot of people that dodge fares for exactly that reason, but you're right in that just dodging fares doesn't send out any message to the train companies.

[Lord Testicles]

Does anyone know what the conductors do if one does not have a ticket? I know they tell you that you have to get off the train, but if you refuse?

They'll fine you.

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

My girlfriend lives on the south coast, I live in Yorkshire right now; i've seriously considered the idea of us flying to see each other as opposed to rail travel.

Last weekend I paid 70 quid for a return ticket, only to be met with delays, no seat and an un-usable toilet facility, in addition to the promised 'food and drinks' trolley containing nothing but warm bottled water and crisps.

I've been studying privatisations in lectures this week. The whole railtrack thing amazed me, didn't realise the scale of it's collapse.

Also on privatisations - the water industry. Noted that at the turn on the millennium - I believe 15 years or so after it was privatised - the price of water had jumped by 60%. Scandalous.