I’m writing this on a train down to London from Newcastle. It struck me that, like almost every train trip I have taken recently, the service is incredibly popular with very few empty seats. I’ve also been musing on the environmental and congestion impacts if all these hundreds of people had travelled by private car at normal occupancy rates instead.

So are all these virtuous rail travelers subsidising motorists by buying expensive rail tickets? When I did some googling, the answer is very much “it depends”. The Man in Seat 61 explains that the UK’s rail industry is very good at extracting cash out of commuters and business travellers while offering very competitive fares compared to our European neighbours for off-peak journeys. So while some tickets are eye-wateringly expensive, shrewd choices can lead to big savings.

The tricky issue is that you pay for rail travel per person per trip, whereas many motoring costs are fixed for the year: insurance, VED, servicing etc. This is why we eventually ditched our car – the fixed costs became excessive for so little use. The upshot is that we get full economic benefit of train travel as non-car owners, but car owners have already sunk those costs, so the benefits are less pronounced.

One step to address this disparity would be to shift from fixed costs to more of a ‘pay per mile’ system for motorists. I find it weird that this is apparently a political hot potato with London Mayor Sadiq Khan being accused of planning it in the recent Mayoral elections (he denied any plans). A survey by insurers Go Compare found that 25% of motorists supported the idea, but a full 50% were against. Khan won comfortably, so it can’t be that controversial – probably the usual reaction to a new system.

Finally, on one website I chanced on during this musing, I noticed that ‘comfort’ was factored in as a benefit of driving. Well, since I got on this train, I’ve read a newspaper cover to cover while drinking coffee and nibbling on a pan-au-chocolate, before planning my week and writing this blog. Can’t do any of that in a car… and I’ll get to London in half the driving time. I suppose it is how you define ‘comfort’.