I’ve woken in a good mood, my cough and cold is subsiding, I’ve had a great cup of coffee, okay, it is cold, grey and wet outside, but I am warm and content.

I then make the mistake of opening a web browser and reviewing BBC News. Good mood now gone. Here’s why;

Rail fares to be frozen in England next year

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cwygx71g3n7o

“Rail fares in England next year are to be frozen for the first time in 30 years, the government has announced.

The freeze until March 2027 will apply to regulated fares, which includes season tickets and off-peak returns.

The most recent fare rise, in March 2025, was 4.6%. Rail fares traditionally have gone up in January, based on the July rate of the retail price index (RPI) + 1% – although this formula has not always been followed”

We are supposed to be grateful? Is it because they cannot justify the extortionate cost as it stands and to take more money would be a tipping point where people break? Think I’m being dramatic? Let me allow some context;

I live an hour to two hour drive from London, it’s less than 70 miles away and I am on the main train line. To get a return rail ticket to London for Monday morning is about £70.00 based upon the search I have just done on the National Rail site. I recently flew to Salerno in Southern Italy peak season, return, with taxes, which is over 1000 miles away for £85.00 return.

Please make that make sense, because I cannot. It indicates to me that a particular group of people are losing lots of money (airline shareholders), or making lots of money (railway shareholders) when you consider the disparity. It doesn’t take much working out, does it?

I’ll run through the other takeouts on different posts.

This issue on X: https://x.com/theslayford/status/1992520509964382541