Tickets please! Why platform prices are like train fares

There has been a great deal of discussion about the importance of the price of platforms recently, with some commentators inventing their own ‘Plimsoll Lines’; outlining the level below which they believe platforms will sink. Being an economist by education, I have found the discussions quite interesting, but for me they have largely overlooked any consideration of value. Oscar Wilde once wrote that: “a cynic is a man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing” and it seems rather fitting in the context of recent discussions. Compared to price, value for money is much ...