Virgin Trains have made it more difficult to but a cheap rail ticket unless you book at least 35 days in advance. The Government has spent 8 billion pounds on upgrading the West Coast Line from Glasgow to London and Virgin receives an annual subsidy of 2 million pounds.

So what’s the answer?  Virgin think it makes good business sense to charge passengers more if they can and claim that this policy also helps reduce overcrowding on the trains.  Should the trains be run as fragmented private enterprise?  Would it be possible for the railway system to be run as a efficient nationalised industry? If the Government is serious about providing viable alternative transport to motoring and air travel, the UK really needs a well run, attractively priced rail network and that’s not what we have at present.