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Yes it is, within the restrictions of a hidebound and protectionist sector and good luck to them. We should see many more GCs and make rail access much easier for anyone with the expertise and open the market place.

Because prices are fixed between operators. A new operator wouldn't be allowed to buy a few HSTs and fit between paths on the same route and economise on purchasing and pass that saving onto the customer, or privately source new rolling stock and do the same. TOCs operate in an imaginary...

What would you consider a monopoly? The majority of the network has no like for like competition and deliberately so. TOCs are a cartel, they can charge what they choose because no one else is allowed on the same metals to offer an identical service within the limits of signalling. Do you not...

The idea railways aren't a monopoly because you can walk or catch a bus or drive is absurd. When the railways were built there was often duplication, a traveller might be able to move north and south by the LNWR, the MR, the GN and other companies and those businesses were built on offering a...

1968, I was nine years old.

When I last went spotting there were steam trains running. Enjoy your brave new railway world 'mingo, ker-ching!

It's about norms and the way people live their lives. The norm used to be a 2nd class day or period return and luxury and economy travel, in the form of first class compartments and promotions and rail cards, was based around that second class price. Privatisation has shifted that former...

I think there's a huge dose of denial from people who work in the industry about the cost of rail travel. It has become a luxury commodity only sustained by the fact there aren't more short haul airlines. I'm an advocate and fan of railways and public transport generally but the present system...

No they don't, they reflect a monopoly intent on screwing as much cash from its customers as possible. How can three hundred pounds or whatever reflect the cost of transporting someone half way down the country? It bears no resemblance to anything in the shopping basket. I've heard of travellers...

I don't believe that's the case. Walk on prices have become truly extortionate since privatisation, there's a difference between wanting 'owt for nowt and TOCs taking the mickey. As one chap said when told the price of a first class ticket to Manchester from Euston so he could get some work done...

That is an excellent suggestion. I waited quite a while before getting involved in this thread and eventually did so because of the opprobrium being heaped on the woman without the case being proven either way, much of it from railway workers.

It looks like railway workers closing ranks to the outside world. That may not matter from the inside but if the woman has made a claim of intimidation of a minor and being told by a paid official she was okay to board, those routes need to be proven beyond reasonable doubt not to be the case...

Plenty if it involves intimidation of a minor with threats of imprisonment. That's taking a commercial transaction into bullying, IMHO, and as been pointed out repeatedly, train ticketing as a whole isn't simple.

I've been talking about privatised UK ticketing as a whole. I think some others have too from their replies.

Advance restrictions are only one kind. I refer you to a few dozen pages of 'fares, tickets and routing enquiries' on this board. Ticketing is either unclear, or this board is populated by very stupid railway enthusiasts.

I haven't once said that and challenge you to find where I have. You're characterising anyone who finds travel restrictions complicated as cheats or stupid cheats who should read the damned instructions. As I said above and this board bears testament to, the restrictions are frequently anything...

Indeed, but restrictions should be absolutely clear and logical and appeal to natural justice, they shouldn't need to be sought in a rule book. Travelling between two unfamiliar places should not need 'research'. If I were to ask for the cheapest tickets between east anglian and north wales...

Which posters have claimed that?

I agree totally with that summary of the current situation. Two scenarios are meeting, an apparently customer centred, clean, efficient, privately owned, modern railway - and absurdly complex ticketing arrangements to use it. It may not appear complicated to those whose profession it is to...

I've been in such situations a number of times and the guard has gone missing. It's not a criticism of all guards, some are proactive and friendly, others see passengers as an enemy who's done something wrong and it's their job to find out what. I'd recommend more travellers who think they've...