I had just about calmed down from the three hours and 15 minutes it had taken to trundle 23 miles from Manchester to Accrington last week (average speed 7mph) when I read that rail fares are to rise by an average of 3.1% in the new year.

The Rail Delivery Group, a conglomeration of the private rail operators, suggested we should be pleased because the rise was below inflation. Only 2p in every pound goes into its own pockets, it chirped in a press release. The rest is invested in the railways. To which anyone with the misfortune to rely on our knackered rail network would say: what investment?

Rail passengers have long paid over the odds for reliably shoddy services, with commuters on some routes paying six times more than their counterparts in France or Italy. But the pain is not spread evenly. Commuters in London don’t suffer the indignity of having to travel on a Pacer train – a bus carcass welded on to a four-wheeled wagon frame, bodged together for a third of the cost of a “real” train back when I was still in playgroup.

Unleashed in the early 1980s when rail travel was believed (erroneously) to be in terminal decline, Pacers were never intended to have a long life. Famously, a few were exported to Iran, only to be abandoned as too old-fashioned. (I had long assumed this story to be folklore but I checked with Andrew McLean, head curator at the National Railway Museum in York, and it is absolutely true – “they were completely impractical for a hot country like Iran, because there was no air conditioning”.)

Tehranis and Londoners may not have to ride a Pacer to work, but living along the Hope Valley line between Manchester and Sheffield, I do. That crawl to Accrington on Thursday started on a Pacer too. It was 45 minutes late leaving Manchester Victoria and only got as far as Todmorden, when the destination changed without warning. It was 90 minutes until the next train arrived.

Meanwhile, a friend from Halifax was in his own Northern Rail hell. A ceiling light in his carriage exploded, scattering debris on the passengers below. No one was hurt, so the train chuntered on, only to break down at Bradford. Later in the day, on the Manchester to Buxton service, someone taped Post-It notes on the back of the seats, with bons mots like: “Your late, cancelled, no lights, striking, 2-carriages-in-rush-hour trains aren’t worth the ticket price.”

If only crumbling infrastructure were our only problem. The people in charge of the timetables don’t seem to know what they’re doing either. Remember the chaos in summer? Northern Rail unilaterally shut the line to the Lake District at the start of the key tourist season – which prompted a heritage railway operator to step in and run the line free of charge and with minimal fuss. It received no thanks. Unlike Mark Carne, the recently retired boss of Network Rail, a body at least as culpable as Northern for our rail shame, who on Thursday – when I was getting wet on Todmorden platform – received the insignia of his CBE from Prince William.

There is only one thing for it. On 2 January, when the fares go up, we all need to refuse to pay the difference

Let’s not forget the strikes, in which all trains from my local station into Manchester have been cancelled for what will be 19 consecutive Saturdays by the year’s end.

Now, Northern Rail – a subsidiary of Arriva, which is owned by Deutsche Bahn, the German national railway – will tell you that it is phasing out Pacers, with the last one going to railway heaven by the end of next year. It will tell you it is investing unprecedented amounts in new trains, improved trains, better stations and more services. But last year Deutsche Bahn made a net profit of €716m (£638m). Why can’t it invest those profits to keep our rail fares low?

There is only one thing for it. On 2 January, when the fares go up, we all need to refuse to pay the difference. A mass act of disobedience is all that will make these rail companies listen. Many stations outside major cities don’t have barriers. People can just board their trains as usual and offer the conductor the old fare. (Have exact change to make things nice and easy.) John Parker Lee, a photographer in Manchester, told me he got so fed up with delays a few years ago that he started offering 80% of the fare. The conductor never argued back. “If everyone started paying what the service is worth, and not what it demands, the network would be reformed in months,” he said.

There were 1.7bn journeys made on the railways in 2016-17 – which averages out at 4.6m a day. Even if only 1% of us took part, that would be 46,000 people causing a major headache for the mickey-takers who run our trains. We can crowdfund the legal fees for anyone they decide to make an example of. Who’s with me?

Helen Pidd is north of England editor of the Guardian and tweets @HelenPidd