The Tameside Radio presenter on what can be done to tempt people back on trains and some of his own rules he'd introduce on public transport.

It's been reported this week that the Government wants to make rail fares simpler, and that one part of that strategy might involve axing return train tickets. At the moment, it does seem crazy that most single journeys are 10p (or £1 at most) less than their return equivalent, and experts say it's something that harks back to the era of curled-up British Rail sandwiches.

There are also websites dedicated to saving money through so-called 'split ticketing', where you buy your tickets across several portions of the same journey. You don't need to get off the train and on again...you just have a number of tickets that cumulatively cost less. It's all smoke and mirrors, and the Transport Secretary is right to say the system needs some serious reforms.

LNER, the train company which operates along the East Coast mainline from York to London and Edinburgh, has announced it will extend a trial to sell only single tickets from this spring. If successful, the experiment will be rolled out across other rail operators.

During the pandemic, the railways kept going with their usual timetable, thanks to a huge amount of taxpayers' money. One estimate has put this cost at £1,000 per household in the UK. A new company has been proposed - called Great British Railways - which we are assured is not nationalisation (although some would argue that might be preferable to the franchise system), but will instead "maximise competition, innovation and revenue growth right across the industry", according to Transport Secretary Mark Harper.

For their part, Labour's Shadow Transport Secretary Louise Haigh says "thirteen years of failure has seen fares soar, more services than ever cancelled, while failing operators continue to be handed millions in taxpayers' cash". PA News Agency has found that in the four weeks to 7 January, the equivalent of one in 13 services was cancelled. This cannot be deemed acceptable, surely.

Leaving aside the issue of strikes, I think we do need a more transparent system for buying tickets. There are so many different fare types available, and unless you know the tricks of the trade, you're going to end up potentially paying far more than it would cost to drive somewhere. In some cases, a plane works out cheaper, which is catastrophic for the environment. Single leg pricing is already working well in Germany and Switzerland. 

Gimmicks like "flash £1 fare sales" are all well and good, but we just need a bit more honesty and transparency when it comes to pricing up journeys. The train needs to be more tempting to drive more traffic off our clogged motorway network, and the fact Rishi Sunak chose to fly between destinations in the north recently rather than hop on the train spoke volumes about the gulf between London and the rest of the UK when it comes to transport links.

I think there is merit in scrapping return fares, but we need a bigger conversation about making public transport a more palatable option. That would represent, dare I say it, a bit of the much-trumpeted 'levelling up' we keep hearing about.

Meanwhile, if I can introduce a few new rules for public transport too, that would be great:

1) Keep your feet off the seats. Any instances of this would result in one warning, then a ban for a week from all forms of public transport. Or having to sit in a room and listen to James Corden duetting with Kylie Minogue on Only You, on a loop for 12 hours.

2) No listening to music or watching YouTube videos, unless you're wearing headphones or have the volume muted.

3) Eating is fine, but leaving litter is not. I might draw the line at Pot Noodles, as I can't stand the smell.

Joking aside, buses and trains should be a more tempting option. Simpler fares could certainly be one way to make this a reality. As a former member of the Railway Club at school, I would love the chance to get the train to work early doors. Sadly, it doesn't run early enough at the moment. It would if I lived in London!

You can listen to Alex every weekday from 7am to 11am and on the 'Super Scoreboard' show on Saturdays from 3pm to 7pm, on Tameside Radio 103.6FM.