You Do the Math

This is the current rolling stock of the East Anglian line into Liverpool Street I am compelled to endure. It dates back to the late 70s when Jimmy Saville was suggesting it was the "age of the train".
They are slow, dirty and uncomfortable. There is no ticket office or machine at my station. The price of a peak return to London is £73.30.
Last year, the operating company increased its profits to over £43m.
The previous Transport Secretary, Philp Hammond announced a review of cost and revenues for the British railways. He said the choice was stark; either increase taxpayer's contribution to the subsidy or put up fares. He neglected to focus on the hundreds of millions paid out to the 28 operating companies. For example East Coast Line profits last year leapt to £182m and First Great Western scooped £127.8m for their directors and shareholders, an increase of 56%.
The current Sos, Justine Greening, will today be backing the findings of a DfT report which will suggest wacking the subsidy and so letting communters be skinned again and do nothing about the profiteering from our public services. Although the McNulty report recognises our fares are about a third higher than (state owned) European counterparts, he favours introducing airline style structure where peak prices will rocket. Many commuters coming in from the West of London pay thousands a year for the prvilege of standing in a packed train - a particularly loathsome experience in the warm weather.
It reads as a very partial report. When considering the efficiency of the old British rail it comes up with this civil service classic "results [were] inconclusive, with studies ranking British Rail as the most efficient, others as the least efficient, and some about average." Presumably the same can be said for the private companies although they could not argue the current fractured structure could offer equivalent economies of scale.
We should not be altogther surprised, the Conservatives have always been in thrall to business and relish selling the state's assets for large corporations at the cost to the individual.