Will UK rail fares ever come down

[Starmill]

That's because the government has very little money after Labour spent it all.

Erm, no.

The answer is no.
If a ticket costs £50, it will never go down to £48.

Again, no, not true.

It doesn't need complicating by saying "inflation... in real terms..." - the answer is still no. The fare will never reduce in price.

And you're still wrong!

In 2014 a Doncaster to London Anytime Single was more than £105. It was cut to £95. Now it stands at £103.50. A cut in both absolute and real terms.

Fares for travel after 0930 were cut by about 10% on a whole host of routes across 2015/16 including the Durham and Cumbrian Coasts, the Saltburn, Hadrians Wall and Esk Valley likes, the Settle & Carlisle lines. Some Off Peak Day Return fares in West Yorkshire even went down by about 20p for short journeys, while the Anytime Day Return fare was frozen, this was in order to increase the premium charged for travel at peak times. SWR introduced Weekend Off Peak fares in 2016/17 which cut the fare for travel between all kinds of places. Bournemouth to Southampton is a classic example where it now costs £12.80 return on any train at the Weekend, which is a lower fare than 2 years ago.

Today, Preston to Lancaster has an Off Peak Day Return for £5.15 with a railcard. I have a ticket here from 2013 where the fare was £5.60 because only an Anytime Day Return was available back then. If you limit yourself to Virgin Trains, the fare is £4.50 now with a railcard, an option which is permenent now and didn't exist back then.

In 2006 when the current FGW (now GWR) franchise began, they cut a lot of fares in Devon & Cornwall in absolute terms. A few years later, the Any Permitted fare set by ATW between Cardiff and Swansea was also cut in absolute terms, as retaliation against FGW who had introduced their own dedicated fares (meaning that the Any Permitted and FGW only fares were the same price and this totally pointless). Chiltern slashed the price of a 7 Day Season between Hatton and Lapworth in half a couple of years ago.

I could go on and on and on.

Do not mistake me - most fares are overpriced. Three times a year there are scandalous price rises. But sometimes, fares do fall.

 

[Starmill]

I am just saying that the current government hasn't been very successful in reducing the deficit, even using their own criteria for success.

Exactly. They have achieved weak success at most on the budget deficit. By other measures (GDP growth, real income change, NHS results, homelessness, child poverty and so on) they have done an appalling job.

 

[exile]

Exactly. They have achieved weak success at most on the budget deficit. By other measures (GDP growth, real income change, NHS results, homelessness, child poverty and so on) they have done an appalling job.

I have a vision of a Chancellor (of either party) broadcasting from the smoking ruins of a nuked London saying "At least we've reduced the budget deficit to zero!"