Between the Lines

East Coast on top: a Class 158 approaches Retford as an Azuma passes overhead on a test working on 27 June 2018. Dafydd Whyles

The Rail Delivery Group (RDG) concluded its consultation on fares regulation on 10 September. The exercise is driven by a view that ‘decades of well intentioned but outdated regulation have led to a range of fare options that have not kept pace with technology or how people work and travel today’. In principle, I have enormous sympathy with this assertion. One of the big mistakes at the time of privatisation was the decision to regulate the Saver fare for longer-distance journeys; with hindsight, I’m convinced that it would have been much better to regulate the open return.