Absurdly high fares, a bewildering ticketing system, passengers playing cat-and-mouse with train companies trying to spot “split-ticket” bargains; there are lots and lots of reasons why the root-and-branch reform of fares promised this week by the network operators is long overdue.

Given the price-gouging history of the privatised train companies, and the way they are hooked on extorting walk-up passengers who dare not book at precisely 3.32am 12 weeks before travelling, none of us can be confident this is not just a PR con trick. But if they are serious about reviewing fares and introducing a bit more fairness, here’s six ways they can go about it.

1. Per-mile fares Other countries have a quaint tradition where the cost of your train journey is based on the distance travelled. We abandoned this in favour of “charge whatever you can get away with”, or, its more recent iteration, “we’re having a laugh”.

Take, for example, the prices I found for trains this coming Monday at about 10.30am booked a few days before. The single fare from Bristol (Temple Meads) to Bradford – that’s 166 miles – is £59, but you have to change twice. With one change, it’s £99.30. That’s 60p a mile.

Compare that with a train from London (Marylebone) to Birmingham at the same time – 101 miles. The cheapest fare, with no changes, is £5.50, or 5p a mile. Explain that one.

Walk-up fares are absurdly expensive, while off-peak special deals are arguably too cheap. Most European railways operate on a largely per-km system. But our operators will no doubt come up with a gazillion “dynamic pricing” reasons why fairness and simplicity is not possible here.

2. Fair season tickets Cambridge to London Liverpool Street is 48 miles. The annual season ticket is a shocking £4,540. Tunbridge Wells to London Cannon Street is 30 miles. But the annual season ticket is more expensive, at £4,644. On an absolute level, and on a comparative level, both are bonkers.

3. Part-time season tickets You can buy weekly, monthly and annual season tickets. But if you are a flexible worker, travelling three times a week at peak times, there is nothing beyond some “carnets”. Matching ticketing with modern working patterns is urgently required.

4. Annual all-country pass Germany’s rail network stretches 41,000km, compared with Britain’s 32,000km. Yet Deutsche Bahn offers the BahnCard 100 that lets you board any train anywhere in the country for a year for €4,270 (£3,733), or nearly £1,000 less than the 30-mile commuter journey from Tunbridge Wells. If Germany, where wages are higher, can offer this price – which even includes U-bahn (underground) trips – why can’t we?

5. 16- to 18-year-olds Our fares system nonsensically assumes that at 16 you are an adult and able to pay the full fare. Meanwhile, at 60, Transport for London offers residents a “Freedom Pass”, with free travel after 9.30am, worth as much as £3,500 a year.

6. Buying tickets I fly London to Dublin frequently. I buy the flight in Ryanair’s app, usually £40-£60 return. I check in using a QR code on my phone, which, with a few scans, lets me through security and on to the plane. Rail ticketing technology is stuck in the 1970s. That said, I’m not sure I’d want Ryanair to run the railways.

p.collinson@theguardian.com