In this era of financial austerity, the number one priority has to be the "bottom line", in order to reduce the subsidy required. For passenger servicesir fares reform and "simplification" is critical, with the aim of increasing revenue. For overloaded inter-city services where increased capacity cannot be provided easily, that may mean increasing prices to drive away unremunerative customers. Freight flows need to be re-examined too. Getting rid of restrictive practices and outdated working arrangements also needs to be addressed, e.g. increased DOO, to reduce the wage bill.
The focus needs to be on increasing regular local passenger rail use in urban conurbations, rather than in rural areas where road traffic congestion and pollution is much less of any issue. In urban areas, each service ideally should be 2 tph Mon-Sat daytimes. However, some unremunerative poorly used services (passenger and freight) may need to be chopped, especially in rural areas, such as the ex-GC Brigg line, with lines no longer needed preferably mothballed rather than disposed of. Limited rail re-openings directly into major cities, such as the Portishead-Bristol line, should be progressed, as should some conversions to light rail, e.g. Blackpool Pleasure Beach-Kirkham.
