S Viemeister wrote:
On 5/13/2010 12:45 PM, Tim Streater wrote:


Is this anything other than advanced willy-waving? It struck me as
significant that it cost £6billion to build 60 miles from St Panc to
Dover - this is a very crowded country. Also, when I once had to go
Cambridge-Glasgow, it cost something like £60 on EasyJet and £300 by
train. Given the huge subsidies for the trains, that hints to me that
trains consume much more of society's resources to provide the same
service, although I have no numbers here.


Train prices vary wildly - a couple of weeks ago, I travelled from
London KingsX to Inverness, in first class, for 52.80. (Standard would
have been about 40.00, so I splurged.)
Well I know
a very hiugh up person iuna very large train company, and the way he
explined it is this.

"Franchises vary, as do subsidies. Train operator A has a franchise on a
main line from London to the North. He paid a bloody lot for it, and so
its not subsidised, its taxed. It gets commuter traffic, so its
profitable and humongous ticket prices, BUT its the only train to get
into London for 9 a.m.

However operator B has a completely different franchise. He is operating
a local service out of grimy Northern town on branch line C. He is
subsidised to ensure that local train services exists. His trains,
however, can escape onto the main line and go to london, 'as part of the
local service' He charges almost nothing for the tickets, because he
doesn't need to: He gets paid to run trains, not carry passengers'