Rail fares in England and Wales have been hiked up by nearly five per cent despite train cancellations being at the highest levels for 10 years.
Public transport campaigners have argued that passengers are being “punished” and will be “angry” at the price increase, which will cost the average commuter hundreds of pounds extra to travel.
Figures from the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) show that 3.9 per cent of services were cancelled in the year to February 3.
This narrowly misses out on taking the top spot for the worst-performing year from 2014, where 4.1 per cent of services were suspended.
Train fares are being hiked from today despite cancellations being at their highest in a decade
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Constant strikes, infrastructure failures and temperamental weather have impacted the reliability of the rail industry.
A season ticket from Brighton to London will increase by £275, rising from £5,616 to £5,891.
The Scottish Government will increase ScotRail fares by 8.7 per cent from April 1.
Chris Page, who chairs pressure group RailFuture, said: “Why are rail passengers being punished year after year with inflation-busting fare rises?
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The price increase will cost the average commuter hundreds of pounds extra to travel
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“No matter that there’s a cost-of-living crisis, no matter that we’re facing a climate emergency, the Government seems more determined than ever to price us off the railway and on to the roads.”
Campaign for Better Transport campaigns manager Michael Solomon Williams said: “At a time when we urgently need to encourage people to take the train, the public will rightly be angry to discover that it has just become even more expensive to do so.
“We know that people will decide to drive or fly if the train is too expensive, so this is bad news for our personal finances, the wider economy and the environment.”
Labour’s shadow transport secretary Louise Haigh said: “This fare rise will be tough for passengers to stomach given the shocking state of rail services up and down the country.
Rail minister Huw Merriman said train fares were ‘well below inflation’
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“Since coming to power in 2010 the Tories have hiked fares by almost twice as much as wages, and now passengers are being asked to pay more for less.”
Last month, rail minister Huw Merriman said that the Government had tried to “split the balance between the UK taxpayer and the fare payer” in relation to fare rises, which he described as being “well below inflation”.
ORR figures show £4.4billion of funding was given by the Government to train operators in Britain in the year to the end of March 2023.
Last July’s Retail Prices Index measure of inflation, which is traditionally used to determine annual fare rises, was nine per cent.
The Consumer Prices Index, which is normally used to measure inflation, was 6.8 per cent in July 2023 but dropped to 4 per cent in January.
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