Ministers think trains are just too much bother. That’s why they are so relaxed about the strikes | Simon Jenkins

As fewer and fewer people use them, it seems railways are regarded as no longer essential – especially in the north

Of all Britain’s looming strikes, ministers seem least worried by the trains. When last week the Treasury and the transport secretary, Mark Harper, reportedly stopped the rail companies from upping their pay offer to the unions, they would have known the strike was on. They would have known that demanding new work practices alongside a fall in real-terms pay was never going to work....