Helen Pidd endorses direct action against 'unfair' rail fare price increases

[PeterC]

If people keep paying the fare then it isn't too high. That is how markets work.

If I don't like the train fare for a journey I can drive or use a bus or coach or fly.

 

[MikeWh]

I didn't follow the link because I get fed up with their sorry pleading cries for a financial contribution. Worse than Wikipedia whose annual begging pop-up is on the go at the moment.

If she, or the Guardian, has a problem with price/fare increases over the rate of inflation it needs look no closer than its own cover price. 45p in 1998, £2.00 in 2016. A 344% increase over 18 years when inflation was around 50%.

A random local fare, Blythe Bridge to Uttoxeter rose from around £3.80 to £6.80 over the same period.

Time to boycott The Guardian. Let's all go into the newsagents and only offer £1.00 for the newspaper.

Both the Guardian and Wikipedia value their independant status. Both need money to operate. If they don't get money from donations they will have to decide whether to call it a day, or succumb to the editorial whims of whoever finances them. Would Carole Cadwalldr have had the backing to expose the things she has done if a Murdoch/Barclay/Desmond character was paying her wages?

That's not to diminish the argument over the cover price, although that reflects more than just inflation.

 

[Baxenden Bank]

Both the Guardian and Wikipedia value their independant status. Both need money to operate. If they don't get money from donations they will have to decide whether to call it a day, or succumb to the editorial whims of whoever finances them. Would Carole Cadwalldr have had the backing to expose the things she has done if a Murdoch/Barclay/Desmond character was paying her wages?

That's not to diminish the argument over the cover price, although that reflects more than just inflation.

Indeed, but I don't see the difference.

The Guardian, Wikipedia and the rail industry all have costs to meet. From income of some form. If those costs increase, income (from someone, somewhere) needs to increase to cover it. Or as some will have it on another thread discussing fare increases, costs should be cut by freezing (or reducing) rail staff salaries.

However, one difference is that The Guardian, through The Scott Trust, was really rather well off, with substantial non-national newspaper income streams e.g. Auto Trader, MEN Group etc. But those were sold off and the sums of money raised simply pi**ed into the wind on ill-advised ventures directed by those having a 'child in a sweet shop' mentality. Too late now, the money is gone, but The Guardian could have been a successful independent newspaper, substantially self-financing through investment income and with a much more realistic cover price.

I bought it, 6 days per week, religiously for decades until 2011 when I realised that I was being taken for a ride in terms of reduced actual news content (and more importantly quality interpretation and comment on that news) and a cover price roaring away at several multiples of the rate of inflation. So I stopped buying it. As did many hundreds of thousands of others, still got a circulation of 600,000 has it? The same as I stopped using the services of a self-catering holiday company who had the same attitude to price increases, the same as I will shortly stop using the services of BT who have the same attitude to price increases.

And the same as rail travellers would do if their fare increases were actually roaring well ahead of the rate of inflation. But no, they aren't, and they haven't done so for 20 years or so. See my table attached previously - balances out at 5 years of RPI+1% since 1997. More than many wage increases, true, but nothing compared to the industries mentioned above.

No, it's simply the annual whinge from people who want everything in life for free. Click-bait journalism. And, in terms of Helen Pidd, it's two-faced given her employers attitude to above inflation price rices. If she were really concerned about people's cost of living she can write an article next week about a certain quality newspaper right royally screwing it's loyal readership.