I woke up this morning to this story on the BBC Breakfast television News about the UK having the highest rail fares in Europe, which is no great surprise to anyone who’s spent any amount of time on the continent. At one point during the report it cut to one of those vox pops with some bird quite rightly saying that the price keeps going up but we’re not seeing any difference in the quality of service. Here’s a quote from the same BBC article: “British annual season tickets for journeys of no more than 25 miles were 88% more expensive than the next most expensive country – France – and more than four times pricier than the cheapest country – Italy”. Pretty incredible stuff, not surprising but at one point the Department of Transport were giving a statement to the effect that once improvements had been made to the infrastructure of the railways we could see prices falling more into line with the rest of Europe. ‘”Bollocks”, I thought, even if the current system was running bullet trains that were time managed by atomic clocks there is no way they’re going to turn around and say “Right lads, time to stop taking the piss – slash ticket prices by 50%”.
Anyway, I completely forgot all about it and went about my day routinely getting sodomized by the extortionate London public transport system before sitting down to begin reading ‘The Undercover Economist’ by Messr. Tim Harford. Precisely 30 mins ago I came across this gem on page 18:
“Why would improvements in the quality and price of the commuter train services that bring people into London’s mainline stations, such as Waterloo, from the sorrounding suburbs please anyone who rents a property in central London? And why might the city’s landlords be less than ethusiastic about such improvements?
The answer is that improved public transport increases alternatives to renting a place in the city. When a two hour commute becomes a one hour commute, and people are able to get a seat instead of standing, some decide they’d rather save money and move out of central London. Vacant apartments then appear on the market. Scarcity lessens, and rents fall. Improving commuter services wouldn’t just affect commuters; it would affect everyone involved in London’s property market”
Now that the housing boom is on it’s arse, this situation is not going to get any better. We’re still going to have to have our noses pressed against people’s armpits every Monday to Friday whilst paying a minimum of 1200 quid a year for the priviledge.
Moving on to page 19…
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