Rail fares will increase by up to another 3.2% in January, the government has confirmed, with the cost of some season tickets to rise by hundreds of pounds.
The figure is below the 3.6% hike to regulated fares in January this year, the steepest in five years, but continues the trend of fare increases far outstripping average wage rises.
Rail industry leaders said the fares were “underpinning once-in-a-generation investment” in the railways.
Commuters and campaigners intensified calls for a freeze in fares, in a year in which promised improvements to the railway did not materialise, strikes disrupted services, and the May timetable change cancelled tens of thousands of trains, particularly across Northern and Govia Thameslink Railway.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said the fare increases were “an insult to everyone who has suffered from the chaos on Britain’s railways”, and reaffirmed his pledge to bring the railway back into public ownership.
Confirmation of the maximum average rise in 2019’s regulated fares came with the publication of July’s inflation figures by the Office of National Statistics. Regulated fares, which include season tickets and off-peak returns, are capped at the level of RPI inflation – a measure that is not habitually used and is higher than CPI.
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