‘Rail fares have risen three times quicker than wages’

Regulated fares such as season tickets are pegged to Retail Prices Index (RPI) inflation in July, which was 1%.

Rail union RMT general secretary Mick Cash said: “That’s the price of two decades of rail privatisation, and the whole rotten business needs to be swept away and replaced by a public railway under public control”.

Average regulated fares have risen by a quarter over the last five years while wages grew by just nine per cent, according to analysis by the trade union-backed Action for Rail campaign.

Mr Crausby called for a return of the service to the public sector in order to protect commuter’s interests.

“The Conservatives promised in their manifesto that there would be a freeze on rail fares in England for the lifetime of the parliament, but the real cost of rail travel continues to rise”.

“These people are people who are having a go”.

TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady believes the damage has already been done, and many commuters are already “seriously out of pocket” due to sharp rises in the past.

“It would allow much bigger savings to be passed onto passengers”.

“The Government wants the public to subsidise train companies” profits and bear the cost of the fares cap’. “Introducing an arbitrary cap on fares is simply passing the bill on to taxpayers”. Between 2004 and 2013, regulated fares rose by an inflation-busting average of RPI plus 1 per cent annually, in an attempt to reduce taxpayer subsidies to the industry. That would make 2016 the first year that wage growth has outpaced fare rises since 2002.

Rail minister Claire Perry said: “We know rail fares put a strain on family finances”.

Edward Welsh, spokesman for the Rail Delivery Group, representing train operators and Network Rail, said the industry would “continue working to get the most out of every pound we spend”.

The unions aren’t having it, and they think that returning the railways to the public sector would see a reduction in train ticket prices.

The transport charity Campaign for Better Transport have conducted a separate report and found that, again unsurprisingly, the UK if way behind the rest of Europe when it comes to flexible train tickets.

The cost of travelling along some of the major commuter routes into London will go up by between around £23 and £56 a year for anyone buying an annual season ticket.