Not fare on train users

EYE-WATERING rail fare hikes of 3.6% are the latest kick in the teeth for longsuffering commuters.

Rip-off private operators are free to plunder ever more money from the wallets of hard-up passengers who rely on trains to get to work.

The increase far outstrips the sluggish pace of average wage rises.

Workers crammed like sardines into outdated carriages this morning will wonder just what they get for their cash. And they will ask why this annual scam – which, unlike our trains – can be relied on to run like clockwork every year, has yet to hit the buffers.

But that won’t worry the greedy transport bosses who get rich off the backs of ordinary travellers simply trying to make their way to work for an honest day’s graft.

The sooner routes and franchises are taken back into public ownership, as the Mirror has been demanding, the sooner we can derail this annual con.