The Transport Secretary Philip Hammond said earlier this week that it was an ‘uncomfortable fact’ that trains were ‘a rich man’s toy’.
Hammond said that people who travel on the railways generally have a ‘significantly higher income than the rest of the population as a whole’.
In response to Philip Hammond’s comments, a spokesperson for the Association of Train Operating Companies said:
“We get millions of passengers from A to B every day – people from all backgrounds who travel on a range of different tickets.
“The average price paid for a single journey comes in at around five pounds and the sale of cheap Advance tickets has doubled in the last few years, with almost a million sold every week.
“The Secretary of State is right to point out that the benefits of rail are felt well beyond the people who travel by train.
“The nation’s railways support jobs and businesses and play a key role in the British economy.”
