Fears raised of 11% hike in rail fares

RAIL commuters already facing increased annual fares from January 2012 might also find season tickets rocketing this winter.

Regulated fares, which include season tickets, are set to rise by 5.8 per cent in January 2011.

But some regulated fares could go up by as much as 10.8 per cent in the new year as train companies have been give the go-ahead by the government to make the 5.8 per cent figure only an average increase.

Companies have a "5 per cent flexibility", which means they can raise some fares by as much as 5 per cent above the capped figure (which is 5.8 per cent in January 2011) as long as all the regulated fares average out at 5.8 per cent.

The situation has alarmed rail customer watchdog Passenger Focus, whose chief executive Anthony Smith yesterday said: "In the past, train companies have used the fares basket flexibility to impose increases of more than 10 per cent on some routes.

"Passengers will wait anxiously to see if this freedom is used by operators just to get rid of 'anomalies' or whether some will face rises of more than double the rate of inflation."

The Association of Train Operating Companies said that any fare increased by more than 5.8 per cent in January 2011 "must be balanced by another fare reducing by the same amount".

It went on: "The use of flex means that some fares will go up by less than 1 per cent. Importantly, the average is weighted so that operators cannot increase fares on routes with lots of passengers and, likewise, reduce them on routes with fewer passengers.

"It is not in train companies' interests to price people off the railways.

"They are looking to attract ever greater numbers of passengers, which is why they offer a range of fares to suit every pocket, including hundreds of thousands of cheap Advance tickets every week."