As railway fares are set to rise by an average of 6%, making them amongst the highest in the world, Michael Roberts, Chief Executive of the Association of Train Operating Companies, has patiently explained why high prices for a scandlously bad service is in passengers best interests. "Money raised through fares helps to pay for better services," he told reporters with a straight face and then added. "The focus of the whole industry is to keep on reducing the overall cost of running the railways as a way of limiting future fare rises and providing taxpayers with better value for money." We asked our transport correspondent for his view; "What a crock of shit. If they were really putting up prices to fund better services they would have done it by now. The bloody railways were privatised nearly twenty years ago and there's been no discernable improvement so far. The money is being shovelled straight into executive pay and shareholders dividends which, by some magical process, equals "greater efficiency." Like all the other privatisations in the gas and electric industries and "deregulation" of the finance industry, it was designed as a means to steal money from the public with the added benefit of putting their lives in danger. Can you imagine what is going to happen when they finish privatising the NHS?"
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