SIGNAL FAILURES
Ticket punch
TORY MP Robert Jenrick’s fare-dodgers video on YouTube would have carried more authority if his own government had been tougher on ticket fraud and rail finances generally.
The shadow justice secretary filmed himself confronting defrauders at a London Underground station and accused mayor Sadiq Khan of ignoring a problem that leaves taxpayers and honest passengers paying more to cover railway costs. But Jenrick was a minister (2018-21 and 2022-23) in the government that failed to progress reform of the national rail network, as it had promised in the wake of the 2018 timetable fiasco. The government accepted network fragmentation makes it “more difficult and expensive to perform the essentially collaborative task of running trains on time” but simply handed out more contracts to private train firms.