YP Letters: Three cheers for rail critic but boos for bosses

Members of the Fair Fares Now passenger campaign group protesting at King's Cross Station in London over the annual rise in rail fares after the average increase across Britain of 2.3 per cent came into force on Monday.

I’D raise at least three cheers for Andrew Vine if I thought his first rate rail fare diatribe had the slightest chance of making any difference (The Yorkshire Post, January 3).

Transport Secretary Chris Grayling protests that he has to balance the cost of railway costs between fares and taxes. As one of a succession of short-term bottom-liners, he seems unable or unwilling to grasp that effective and affordable railways are far better than cars when it comes to moving crowds.

They are a demonstrably obvious means of easing the chaos on the roads. We are told that 97 per cent of our rail fares and taxes is used for running and development.

Am I right in thinking that the millions generated by the remaining three per cent are creamed off to fund the skiing holidays etc of shareholders?

Though far from unique, the state of the Leeds-Harrogate-York line cries out that every penny should go back into bringing the existing network up to 21st century European standards, with a far greater degrees of urgency than currently prevails.

To Andrew’s cry of “freeze our fares”, I would add “bonuses and dividends too”.