• tacosanonymous@lemm.ee
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        2 months ago

        No. If they were really public, it wouldn’t be measured as a loss. Like my city’s free buses aren’t losing money, they are providing a necessary service.

        • ThrowawayPermanente@sh.itjust.works
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          2 months ago

          It’s still a fare they could have charged, calling it something different doesn’t change the fact that someone has to pay to keep the trains running. Why should the taxpayer be the one on the hook? If it’s such an important service the people who use it would be willing to pay for it.

          • Mr_Blott@feddit.uk
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            2 months ago

            Yeah!

            Why should I pay for schools, I don’t have kids? It’s not like it benefits our entire country’s future.

            Why should I pay for hospitals, I’m not sick. Not like my taxes are being used to help people who really really need it, and whose families are devastated

            I don’t have access to a railway station either, should I pay for quieter, safer roads and communities, and making life easier for my fellow citizens?

            You sound like a yank

            • ThrowawayPermanente@sh.itjust.works
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              2 months ago

              Kids don’t have jobs and people don’t choose to get sick. People do choose to ride trains. Do you just think nobody should ever pay for anything? Haven’t we seen enough times how that works in practice?

                • ThrowawayPermanente@sh.itjust.works
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                  2 months ago

                  I did read the article, I think the fine was too harsh for an honest mistake. But I wasn’t responding to the article, I was responding to someone celebrating the railways losing money because of people not paying their fares.

              • Mr_Blott@feddit.uk
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                2 months ago

                Nobody chooses to ride trains except old steam trains, stuff like the Orient Express

                99% of people use trains because they need them, usually to get to work.

                You’d be about as effective an economist as Liz The Lettuce

                • ThrowawayPermanente@sh.itjust.works
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                  2 months ago

                  Trains are not the only way to travel. Your definition of ‘need’ is so broad as to encompass most of the economy. Organizing society on the basis of that kind of thinking has been tried and the results are invariably disastrous.

                • TWeaK@feddit.uk
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                  2 months ago

                  People absolutely do choose trains over cars, when the train is actually viable. Just because that isn’t a thing in the UK doesn’t mean it couldn’t be.

  • rowdyrockets@lemm.ee
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    2 months ago

    I would have happily put that on a credit card and issued a chargeback while they were still standing there.