Amber Rants: Train Tickets

To those of you unfamiliar with the rail system in England (maybe the whole UK, but certainly here in England), at the age of 16, you become an 'adult' ticket on the trains. This means that instead of getting 50% off train tickets, you now pay full price unless you buy the '16-25 Railcard'. What is this, you ask? I'm so glad you did: you pay £30 per year and can get 1/3 off train tickets.

Seems fair, no? Well I find it unfair for the following reasons:

• 16-year-olds are now obligated to stay in further education or an apprenticeship until they're 18. Even apprentices, who do actually get paid, only earn £3.50 per hour. Yet 16-18 year olds still have to pay full price.
• Young people are most unlikely to own cars, because of the RIDICULOUS insurance costs for young people to have a car, so rail companies should try to appeal to this captive audience
• Global warming is a thing and using a train is probably far better than travelling by car. Incentivising a more eco-friendly transport system can only be good, right?
• £30 per year for a railcard is quite steep, which is probably done on purpose to deter people from actually saving money, but I'm not sure I would actually buy myself one as it would take a few journeys to pay for itself.
• The increased privatisation without regulation of train companies can allow these companies to hold young people (with tiny political capital) to ransom.

aghghfgufhsuahidhsd v

PS - I lied in my previous post when I said I was on a hiatus from ranting, I'd just clicked post and I remembered this HUGE inconvenience