Will rail fares continue to increase every year until a point UK cant afford to travel

[Deerfold]

I see commuter coaches in The City lined up along Queen Victoria St. and the Victoria Embankment waiting to take commuters home. They also pick up at Canary Wharf. I don't know what the fares are but they are luxury coaches and you would be guaranteed a seat, however I do appreciate that in the amount of commuters London has, these are a drop in the ocean.

Although there's still a few into Kent, the number of commuter coach routes into London has been falling for years.

 

[cholsey-choose]

Patronage is down in London, particularly on the buses.

Agreed. Uber and similar services are hammering public transport, amongst many other factors, such as the massive increase in cycle commuting.

It always strikes me as a horrible waste of money, but I know 3 or 4 middle-class commuters who take an £8 Uber ride rather than a £2 (approx!) tube/bus trip at one or the other end of their commute.

 

[faltskog36abba]

As far as I can see, passenger figures have continued to rise for 20 years or so, despite continual "RPI+x" fare rises.
So I don't see how you can say fare increases drive people away (it might reduce overall demand, but that is part of the policy).
Whether this is sustainable, time will tell.
Con, Coalition and Lab have all followed a policy of upward pressure on fares over that period, both in the formula used and in the off-peak time restrictions imposed.
TOCs will also point you at fares (notably Advances) that are cheaper now than they were under BR.
There are also plenty of fares (mainly off-peak) which are better value than those on the continent (where nearly all fares are effectively Anytime).

I travel by train to Glasgow from Manchester or Bolton on advance tickets a few times per year. Some of these tickets are quite cheap if your prepared to get to the station early or travel late, There are some available at the times I wish to travel but they go fast. I pay 50 pounds max for a return or I get the coach -Which I have got for as little as 11 pounds return.

 

[al78]

The ideological drive to eliminate public funding of rail travel is unhinged. Government should count funding the railways as an investment in both reducing total emissions and also in road capacity, since you'll get an extra car on the roads for (approximately) every 1-2 passengers priced off rail.

But by motivating rail commuters to switch to driving, the road congestion increases. Increasing road congestion provides an opportunity to raise motoring related taxes, using environmental concerns as an excuse (not that the government really care about that). Once motoring becomes more expensive, people switch back to rail, then the trains become even more rammed full, which provides an excuse to increase the rail fares beyond inflation, because they must be too cheap if so many people are using them. Lather rinse repeat until the government feels it has enough revenue, or people en-mass eventually twig that maybe living 50+ miles from their workplace is not such a great idea.