Train season ticket smashes £11,000 mark as rail fares are hiked up again

Rail fare costs are on the rise again, with annual season tickets due to set some commuters back by more than £11,000 in the new year.

Ticket prices will rise by 2.8 per cent on January 2, adding more than £100 to the cost of some routes across the UK.

The government bases the annual rise on July’s Retail Prices Index (RPI) inflation, which was released today by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

The Labour Party then compared the prices of over 180 train routes in 2010 with their projected cost in January 2020.

They found the average commuter will pay £3,064 for their annual season ticket next year, which was 40 per cent (£870) more than they did in 2010.

Labour’s data also revealed some journeys rose by more than £3,100 in the nine years, with an annual season ticket between Birmingham and London Euston costing £11,205.

The biggest percentage increase identified was between Thame Bridge Parkway, near Walsall and Nuneaton, where costs will rise by 59 per cent.

Brighton to London was estimated to cost £4,581, a £125 increase, and Edinburgh to Glasgow will cost £4,198, giving a £114 increase.

Separate analysis by the Trades Union Congress (TUC) indicated that London commuters travelling from Loughborough or Nottingham will also see their season ticket hit £10,000 for the first time.

Ticket prices have increased twice as fast as wages have, the TUC data also revealed.

Today Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said he was ‘not delighted’ by the increased fares, stating that he himself also uses trains to commute.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme, he continued: ‘The truth is we do now have a situation where average wages are going up faster than inflation, so if you don’t keep this tracking with inflation you are actually effectively putting less money into transport and less money into trains and you won’t get them running on time doing that either.’

Shadow Transport Secretary Andy McDonald said the latest hike in fares demonstrated why UK railways need to nationalised.

He said: ‘Every year commuters are being asked to pay more money for bad train services.

‘The government has sat back and allowed private train companies to cash in while people’s pay has been held back.

‘Continuous fare rises undermine urgent action to tackle the climate emergency by pricing people off the railways. Labour will bring our railways into public ownership so they are run in the interests of passengers, not private profit.’

Research by passenger watchdog Transport Focus shows that fewer than a third of rail commuters are satisfied with the value for money of their ticket.

The organisation’s director, David Sidebottom,called for a fairer, clearer fares formula’ based on Consumer Prices Index calculations, rather than the RPI.

He said: ‘After recent disruption and a lot of misery over last winter, rail operators still have a great deal to improve.’