There has been a major backlash from the unions and the consumer groups across the UK with the announcement that the Virgin West Coast mainline will see some ticket prices increased by 300% over the next few days. The company has decided to issue a new timetable as well as withdrawing a number of cheap day ticket offers for those walking on trains in the morning. This will see some price increased by 300% almost immediately and seriously affect the spending power of consumers.

On average across the whole Virgin Train network there will be a net increase of 6% when the new ticket prices are introduced but unregulated fares will increase by an average of 7%. This could put the UK government on a collision course with consumer groups and the unions at a time when interest in public service transport was beginning to increase substantially. Quite why the likes of Virgin Trains have chosen this moment in time to seemingly "attack" passengers is very difficult to explain.

If substantial ticket price increases are followed through with and more are announced over the next 12 months this could put back the re-emergence of the public service transport network some years.

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