From the BBC


The headline rate on standard petrol and diesel is 52.95 pence per litre, which has been frozen since 2011-12, including a "temporary 5p cut" introduced in 2022-23 which is supposed to be being withdrawn later this year.  Fuel Duty - £24 billion - £835 per household

For the financial year April 2024 to March 2025, the UK rail industry's income from passenger fares was £11.5 billion (and £12.6 including other sources). Government funding for the UK rail industry in 2024-25 was £11.9 billion, supporting nearly half of the total £25.9 billion in industry income.

52.95 pence in 2011 would be equivalent to 77.89 pence today.  If that 25p fuel tax that has been foregone were to have been taken this year and invested in the railways, it would amount to an extra investment / income of around £12 billion. So fares could be halved and £6 billion invested too.

Of course, it gets more complicated; reduced fares and increased investment (if it's done right) will rocket passenger numbers, and passenger numbers will grow; being mass transit, the cost per passenger reduces and you have whole new balance of sustainable public transport becoming the norm.  UK electification rates more in line with other counties in Europe?   People moving even more rapidly away from fossils fuels?  `Inflation stoked by the tax increase and political unrest from those reliant on private cars?

 

Graham this isn't just about people and their private cars

Fuel duty affects manufacturers, distributors, retailers, logistics, haulage and agriculture.

Increase these costs and inflation will rise with them as they are passed on through supply chains to end users, who are quite often already struggling to make ends meet, and it potentially has a devastating impact on an already shaky economy.

Public transport complements road transport - it cannot and will not ever take its place in the way some aspire to, it is simply not living in the real world to suggest otherwise, and politically I think you will find there are far more appealing homes for additional tax revenue than the railway, at least in the proportions you are suggesting.

 

I appreciate that - perhaps a bit more than I made out.  I did understand that these is a special "agricultural diesel" rate - "red diesel" at a much lower rate- or is that a thing of the past past?


Yes - and of course some public transport IS road transport  . ...  I did a "reductio ad absurdum" exercise and, agreed, it WOULD be absurd to take it all the way!    There's is some scope though - and the example a gave at looked at a single year, where in practice investment in one year would reap benefits for many years thereafter.

 

Red diesel is indeed still a feature of the fuel supply - allowed for agriculture, forestry and domestic power (not propulsion) on private narrowboats, for example. 

Our local garage used to sell it - from a specific pump, which had a separate key to operate it, and which had to be obtained from the garage office by legitimate users for each transaction. That facility disappeared when our local garage changed hands, and, to be honest, we never had that many tractors (or narrowboats) passing under the railway bridge at Nailsea & Backwell who would have refuelled there. 

CfN. 

 

There is scope certainly - but rather like the NHS it isn't necessarily about throwing more money at it, but using the vast amounts already in the system more efficiently.