Fare Payers vs. Real People

According to the chief executive of Passenger Focus, a "rail customer watchdog body" for rail customers who still think they are passengers, "train travel is getting more and more popular". Characteristically, the Government is doing its best to reverse this dangerous trend and get people onto the roads and into airports, where Britain's radical plans for the environment (i.e. forget it) can be properly realised. Fares are subject to increases above the rate of inflation, apparently because, in the words of a spokesbeing for the Department for Queueing, Crowding and Standing Still, "Ultimately, there are two sources of income for the railways - fare-payers and tax-payers. Government is spending record sums - on average £88 million a week - and as a result, 42% of the costs of the railway are met by tax-payers." Think of it - all those nice, hard-working families who work hard and pay their bills are being made to subsidise those layabouts who do nothing but stand around on public transport all day long, and who don't even pay tax for the privilege. It's a scandal.