It used to be said that the only two things you could depend on in this life were death and taxes. To that should be added ever costlier rail fares.

Last week we learned that they are due to go up again in January by at least 6.5 per cent, possibly more in some areas.

The Campaign for Better Transport calculated that the cost of an annual season ticket between Bradford and Leeds in 2013 will go up by £56 to £964.30.

By 2016, the same ticket for the same overcrowded commuter journey is likely to cost £1,144 – another £236.

Last year, Sir Roy McNulty published his railways value for money report, Realising The Potential Of GB Rail.

Sir Roy said: “I believe that the recommendations in this report, if fully implemented, could achieve the target of a 30 per cent unit cost reduction by 2018/19 based on current estimates of future demand.

“There is a need for the industry to earn its ‘licence to grow’, so that the opportunities that lie ahead can be exploited, and above all there is a clear imperative to give taxpayers and passengers a better deal.”

Steve Broadbent, a contributor to Rail magazine who lives in Burley -in-Wharfedale, said: “The rail industry has been tinkering at the edges, shutting ticket offices or cutting catering services on trains. They are as sceptical as the Government is keen.”

Government Transport minister Theresa Villiers defended the proposed fare increases as part of a “massive programme” of rail improvements.

“Rail fares are making an important contribution at a time when taxpayer funds are limited by the need to tackle the deficit,” she added.

The Government did indeed announce recently a five-year programme of spending on rail, from April 2014, totalling £9 billion. That seems an enormous sum until measured against the amount of tax-payers’ money given to the European Union in the past 11 years – £172.7 billion, according to Pink Book figures issued by the Office for National Statistics.

One of the legacies of the Beeching rail closures in the early 1960s and rail privatisation in 1994, is that the railways are viewed in isolation from the wider spectrum of policies on planning, housing, roads, industry, technological development and health.

Every year, about 1.4 billion rail journeys take place, the majority of them peak-time journeys to and from London. For every full commuter train arriving, a virtually empty one makes the return journey. This is not cost-effective and can only be paid for either by tax-payers’ subsidy or higher fares.

Rail privatisation was supposed to reduce public subsidy. But according to the McNulty Report, the reverse has happened. Public subsidy rose to £6.8 billion in 2006/7 from a mere £44m in 1997/98. It now stands at £4.5 billion, but still represents 20 per cent of rail revenue.

But are so many daily commuter trips really necessary? Before the Olympic Games, some commentators warned that the extra demand on London’s rail services would be so great the system would grind to a halt.

That didn’t happen, mainly because civil servants were encouraged to work from home. If more people worked from home or lived within walking distance of their work, the benefits to their health as well as their pocket are obvious.

Steve Broadbent said: “We don’t have a policy that brings all these issues into the round. The rail industry is very high-profile even though only seven per cent of the population use the railways, and the vast majority of them are commuters.

“Transport secretaries come and go like the seasons. It only takes one to come in who is pro-road and anti-rail and we’re off again on the same cycle.

“It is unfathomable, because money leaks out to foreign governments, which makes no sense. Northern Rail is half-owned by the Dutch Government. Arriva buses, which go in and out of Bradford, are wholly owned by German state railways.

“For me, railways should be a public service. But since rail privatisation in 1994, they are neither a public service nor a private enterprise.

“Private companies have to stick to what the Government wants. The contracts are very strict, but I wouldn’t think there are many train experts in the Treasury or even in the Ministry of Transport,” he added.