Comment: Same rail service, but it costs more

Everything about the way the railways operate these days is complicated.

The track and the signals are the responsibility of one company, the trains are owned by others and the services operated by yet more.

And if that is not baffling enough, there are the government subsidies, the franchise agreements for the various train operators and the fares structure.

There are different prices for virtually every journey, depending on the time of day and when the ticket is booked.

And there is no guarantee of finding the cheapest fare. The days of walking up to the ticket office window and asking for a Cheap Day Return are sadly long gone.

All any of us know for sure is that travelling by train is expensive.

And now First Great Western has made it dearer for many people.

Yes, they have dropped the price of tickets for one train a day to London. But they have increased the cost of tickets by 20 per cent on two others and prevented people from getting the cheapest fares to the capital until 10am.

On top of that they are hiking car park charges by 25 per cent.

In many cases this means an added expense for a service which is no better, no faster and no more reliable.

But they get away with it because they have a monopoly on rail services between here and London.

And that is because under the system set up for rail franchises it is almost impossible for any other train operator to force its way in and to compete.

There was talk of competition forcing down fares when the railways were privatised. But it never happened and it never will.

First point to the one train where they have cut fares and say also by booking well ahead or buying season tickets fares are cheaper.

But this is simply smoke and mirrors. The reality is that more people will be paying higher fares to travel to London.

No wonder passenger groups are angry.