As in most service Industries, salary costs are a great percentage of overall costs. However, some of the examples given above actually make me cringe as a taxpayer( we are all taxpayers, I know). There is no economic arguement for taking empty trains over 100 miles to begin operation at 6.45 from Liverpool to Norwich. It may be operationally simpler for a Train Company and it's staff but we are in different times now. Surely Train Companies have some incentives to work together to share resources. After all, from a passenger point of view, they are not in competition with each other!