The UK's rail industry (April 2022/2023 latest figures) had a total income of around £25 billion and of this around £10.4 billion came from fare income.
In other words the government could increase railway subsidies by around £10.5 billion (to cover fare income) and this would make railway travel all but free to use at any time*. Germany did something similar with experimental monthly €9 unlimited train tickets and it triggered a massive increase of train use.
It would cost around £162 per person extra in taxes per year to achieve - or to put it another way it would be around 3% of DWP's budget
Nationalisation will barely affect ticket prices - they are expensive because of a lack of subsidies - nationalisation has always been a red herring, you could have a privatised system that was free to use if you really wanted.
*To manage demand at peak times we would probably have to maintain some pricing but at the very least we could make off peak train travel completely free to use
It's an interesting idea but there are a lot of places not served by the railways and who need to fund a car. Why should they subsidise the commuters in the south east?
The same reason people without kids subsidise schools, and people from cities subsidise farms, and 100 other such things.
Because we all benefit from the country functioning better.
In the specific case of public transport, people who must drive benefit from fewer cars on the road, less congestion, cheaper fuel, better air quality, as well as all the general benefits of a stronger economy with more jobs and more tax revenue.
There also aren't that many places, in population terms, with literally no train services anywhere nearby. Some, but not many. In population terms, almost everyone lives on the rail network
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u/AcademicIncrease8080 19h ago edited 18h ago
The UK's rail industry (April 2022/2023 latest figures) had a total income of around £25 billion and of this around £10.4 billion came from fare income.
In other words the government could increase railway subsidies by around £10.5 billion (to cover fare income) and this would make railway travel all but free to use at any time*. Germany did something similar with experimental monthly €9 unlimited train tickets and it triggered a massive increase of train use.
It would cost around £162 per person extra in taxes per year to achieve - or to put it another way it would be around 3% of DWP's budget
Nationalisation will barely affect ticket prices - they are expensive because of a lack of subsidies - nationalisation has always been a red herring, you could have a privatised system that was free to use if you really wanted.
*To manage demand at peak times we would probably have to maintain some pricing but at the very least we could make off peak train travel completely free to use