If, as a long-suffering rail passenger, you read a headline urging travellers to “ignore” this weekend’s nationwide rise in fares, I don’t blame you for moving swiftly on.
But perhaps you might spare me a few minutes to explain my thesis. First, the background. From Sunday morning, 5 March, regulated rail fares will rise by 5.9 per cent. In this context “regulated” covers a range of “walk-up” fares that you can buy at any booking office a few minutes before travel: season tickets, journeys in and out of major cities and longer-distance off-peak fares.
