For those not in the know, there is a political kerfuffle going on in the media dubbed “Traingate”.

In essence, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn was travelling from London to Newcastle for a Labour leadership debate earlier this month. On the way, he was filmed sitting on the floor in the vestibule of a train carriage, saying this reflected the overcrowded nature of the British rail network.

Yesterday, Virgin Trains East Coast, who operate the route, called Corbyn a liar, by use of CCTV imagery taken from within the carriage claiming to show Corbyn walking past empty seats. This has in turn lead to a long and protracted argument. As ever, this has played out on social media by way of incoherent shouting and insulting.

It was perhaps always going to be the case that, as with anything surrounding Corbyn, each side claims Traingate proves them right. Those who are part of the pro-Corbyn realm claim he has been set-up by a man with an axe to grind, given Virgin tycoon Richard Branson would lose out if renationalisation of the railways and Virgin-run NHS contracts happened. Meanwhile, those against Corbyn have claimed Traingate proves them right, in showing the former Labour leader as a liar like everyone else, only with an invincible aura from his supporters.

In reality, this entire thing looks somewhere in the middle. The images show a bunch of seats with what appear to be reservation cards, and accounts from other passengers seem to indicate it took a while into the journey to re-arrange things so Corbyn and others could get seats. In all truth, both sides may well be right and wrong to some degree – maybe moreso for Virgin, if they get in trouble for violating Data Protection laws.

But as is the way, it duly became a media circus. Indeed, the 11:00 from London King’s Cross today (24/08) contained a few journalists asking passengers if they were on the train that day, or for their thoughts in general on the state of the service.

This seems to be the way in a political culture where stunts like this seem to be the main currency for politicians looking to make a point. But beyond this, its likely the whole question about how the rail industry works in practice will go back on the backburner, as the question is clearly not as interesting to a news cycle as a politician’s PR stunt backfiring.

But an actual look is certainly overdue. This year is 20 years since the first wave of privatised operators began running trains in the UK, and four years since the government had pledged to look into it following the botched award of the InterCity West Coast franchise.

It is easy to condemn the model by virtue of looking at Southern Rail, which has seemingly given up running trains in favour of open warfare with the unions. But this is a unique case as the deal GoVia get for running Southern is different to conventional franchises.

The InterCity East Coast franchise that Virgin Trains currently run is more conventional, but comes with its own extreme example of conventional franchising’s perils. Initial operator GNER won the franchise in 1996 and then an extension in 2005, then walked away after its parent company declared bankruptcy in 2007. National Express initially replaced it, then walked away in 2009 after their own financial troubles.

A state-owned company held the firm until 2015, when Virgin Trains took over the running. The franchise is scheduled to get a fleet of new Hitachi trains in the next 3 years, which were pre-ordered by the government at a cost of over £5billion a few years ago for both the ICEC and Great Western (London-Bristol-Cardiff) franchises. It is worth noting that work to prepare Great Western routes is overrunning, but the government will reportedly still have to pay Hitachi hundreds of thousands of pounds a day for the trains it may not be able to use anyway.

Naturally, all this is before fares. One of the journalist on today’s 11am departure from King’s Cross revealed he parted with £104 for the privilege of a return to York, while many regular route users have complained that Virgin removed cheaper fares within months of starting their franchise contract.

It has also been noted that when it was just running the lines out of Euston, Virgin Trains received millions in government subsidy to do so. This model has been present for a while on a number of lines, and it is a valid question as to whether this still works.

Corbyn’s stunt and the consequent Traingate inanity may well have a ludicrious flash in the pan PR storm, but there are valid questions around the central point. Granted, questions also also to be asked of his PR team – if he wanted to film such a video, he would’ve found much more valid material travelling on the dangerously overcrowded commuter routes around London, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Bristol, or other UK cities.

A recent poll has suggested more than 50% of surveyed participants want re-nationalisation of the railways and other public services. There are also many Conservative voters who would like it returned. Sure, there are also voices who say the old British Rail was a joke and are opposed to re-nationalisation, and in any debate on rail ownership, their concerns should be heard.

But this mix of voices on the issue often feels lost amid hand-wringing about inflation-busting fare rises and the occasional stunt like Corbyn’s. All of this rather than anyone doing anything to fix the model and answer the question of how the railway network really should be operated.

Regardless, if this whole thing does at least encourage people to ask whether the current rail franchising structure actually works, and if pressure should be done to alter it, then its a start. If not, then Traingate really will have been just a waste of everyone’s time.