Hello, I'm Simon Calder, welcoming you to my independent travel podcast, bringing you the latest news on

travelling, whether you're dreaming of a great escape or, like me, actually on a journey, whizzing through,

I think that was Stephenage, at 125 miles an hour.

Today I'm going to be talking about rail fares.

They go up from March.

Bad news?

Actually, it's a lot more complicated than that.

Of course, this podcast is, unlike your next train ticket, completely free, as is my weekly travel email.

Do sign up for that at independent.co.uk forward slash newsletters.

Well, on Friday morning, I got a email from the Department for Transport saying rail fares capped to prevent high

increases for passengers. Well this sounded like good news. The annual fare increase has been

capped at 3.8%, which you would have noticed if you've been paying attention is actually a lot

less than the most

recently announced inflation rate. And the government says that, well, they're going to give us a bit

of a holiday. Normally these things come into effect at the very start of January. Instead,

it's going to be extended to March, which they say will give you more time to purchase cheaper,

flexible and season tickets at the existing rate. Of course, the government has a long track

record of investing money in the railways, pouring billions into it to keep them going and also putting up prices.

It's a pretty regular story.

But what is going on?

Well, initially, and I can tell from looking around this train on a Friday afternoon, it should be absolutely packed and it's not

people are staying away from the trains we were actually told by a senior

...