With the price of train tickets having risen by up to 4.9% at a time when the cost of living crisis is squeezing people's disposable incomes and when train companies are paying out hefty shareholder dividends, we went out to ask the people of Lancashire what they made of the price hikes...
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00:00 I visited Preston train station today to ask people what they thought of Britain's rail services.
00:06 Yesterday, ticket fares increased by 4.9% even with the strikes and many cancellations.
00:13 So, let's see what they thought.
00:15 [Train sounds]
00:21 And what do you think about Britain's train services?
00:24 Not always the most reliable I'm afraid.
00:26 Have you found that lots of your trains have been cancelled?
00:29 No, I've been quite lucky this journey.
00:31 My train's running late on the way home but coming up it was all on time.
00:36 Where are you trying to get to today?
00:38 I'm going to Houston.
00:39 Oh, okay. And have you seen about the trains' prices increasing yesterday?
00:43 Yes.
00:44 How do you think about that?
00:45 Well, I don't use the trains that much but I think it will come into effect more with my husband because he uses them a lot more than I do.
00:52 And what do you think could be done to improve the services?
00:56 I don't know if it's staff problems or...
01:00 You what?
01:01 I don't know what's going on behind the scenes but it could be a bit more reliable because the prices have been far higher.
01:07 Are you getting the train today?
01:08 No.
01:09 Have you took the train in England before?
01:11 Yes.
01:12 And how have you found the experience?
01:14 The experience was good but one bad thing is that sometimes they cancel and we can miss another train.
01:24 So this is a problem, I think. Maybe not a problem but it's not comfortable.
01:29 And where did you travel to when that happened?
01:32 Once we travelled to Leeds, once to Manchester. We missed even the plane because of the train.
01:39 So you missed the plane because of the train?
01:41 Yes.
01:42 And how did that make you feel?
01:44 I was upset because I had to pay twice.
01:49 Did you get any money back from the train that you missed?
01:53 No, I had to pay for another plane.
01:57 How annoying. And how do you think the UK could improve its transport?
02:03 I don't know. I can't think about this because it's your country. What can I do? I can't do much.
02:11 So what train are you waiting for today?
02:14 1318 to Birmingham.
02:17 And have you found that you've seen lots of trains being cancelled or delayed?
02:23 No, not on this journey.
02:26 And what about in the past?
02:28 Yeah, I have in the past, yes.
02:31 And how does that make you feel?
02:33 A bit iffy.
02:35 And have you seen that the tickets are increasing by five, up to five per person?
02:39 Yes, I heard that on the news.
02:40 And what do you think about that?
02:42 Well, it's around the rate of inflation I think, so I'm not surprised.
02:53 Do you travel a lot?
02:55 Quite a bit.
02:56 And do you think the state of the trains are okay or do you find they're sometimes too busy?
03:01 Okay.
03:04 And do you have anything that the train services could do to improve, do you think?
03:11 Well, I can't think of anything.