> Very few workers with below-average incomes have the need to travel from Manchester to London for a meeting Manchester to London doesn't receive subsidies, i

> Very few workers with below-average incomes have the need to travel from Manchester to London for a meeting Manchester to London doesn't receive subsidies, it makes a lot of money which is plumbed back into (for example) the south wales valleys lines South West Rail for all those affulent bankers going into London also makes a profit that's reinvested in say services in Cornwall > Rail travel is inherently more expensive than other modes and always will be, due to the massive infrastructure cost. That's not nescersarilly true, I suspect you aren't accounting for externalities like polution, the military cost of oil, etc.