Now cost of rail season tickets will rise by £80

LONG-suffering rail commuters will be hit with an increase in season ticket prices next year after an unexpected surge in inflation.

Official figures published yesterday revealed the Retail Price Index (RPI) measure of inflation jumped to 1.9 per cent in the year to July, up from 1.6 per cent the previous month.

Campaigners said ministers should stop using discredited inflation figures to calculate rail fare rises.

The inflation figure – which experts had expected to be around 1.5 per cent – will be used to calculate hikes from next January, triggering fury among passengers whose lives have

‘Prices have to be affordable and fair’

been blighted by strikes, engineering work and overcrowded trains.

Alex Neill of consumer group Which? said: ‘It is little wonder that trust in train companies is falling when passengers face cancellations, delays and disruption, yet see fares continue to rise.’

The increases will add £71 to a £3,748 annual season ticket between Edinburgh and Glasgow, and nearly £78 to a £4,084 pass between Dundee and Edinburgh. The cost of a ticket from London to Edinburgh (376miles) ten years ago is likely to get you only as far as Doncaster (160miles) today.

Campaigners said this was deeply unfair on passengers, who face hikes at more than three times the official level of inflation measured using the consumer prices index, or CPI. CPI edged up to 0.6 per cent in July from 0.5 per cent the previous month.

Yesterday the UK Government faced fresh calls to scrap RPI to set fares and switch to CPI instead. RPI, which unlike CPI includes housing costs, has been largely discredited because it consistently overestimates price rises faced by British households.

Stephen Joseph, chief executive of the Campaign for Better Transport, said: ‘Today’s rise in rail fares proves the government needs to stop using RPI to calculate ticket prices.

‘Using the consumer price index to set rail fare increases would have little impact on railway revenues, but it would save passengers money and bring fares in line with things like public sector pensions.’

Meanwhile, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has outlined plans to renationalise Britain’s railways if Labour wins power. The Scottish Greens have also said the latest rise strengthened the case for putting rail services back into public ownership.

A Transport Scotland spokesman said: ‘The Scottish Government wants to see more people take the train and recognises that prices have to be affordable and fair.’