"Mike Stevens" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >Adrian Stott wrote: >> In fact, we are travelling far too much now, because travel has become >> much too cheap. If you reduce the price for anything, the demand for >> it goes up. Since the tubes, trains, buses etc. are priced very much >> below the market level, and well below what is needed to produce >> enough revenue to support them, it is clear they are under-priced. > >About twenty years ago, one of my drinking friends had recently retired as >Chief Accountant for London Transport. He told me that the total ticket >income for the tube didn't quite manage to pay for the printing, selling and >checking of the tickets, let alone making a contribution to other operating >costs and a totally free system would have cost the tax-payer less. I think >there is a strong argument for public transport in cities to be free to the >user and paid for out of taxation. > >I don't expect Adrian will agree with me!
Got it in one! Why should any service be free, especially one as expensive to provide as transport? If a service isn't self-sufficient from its user revenue, then it will always be under threat from government funding cuts, and will usually be starved of the cash it really needs to be kept in good shape, upgraded, extended, etc. If it is under-priced, and not priced based on usage, it will tend to be over-used and thus congested, especially at busy times (at which the charges should. of course, be higher, but public pressure will prevent this happening). Sound familiar? Adrian Adrian Adrian Stott 07956-299966
