Dawn of £10k commute as rail fares see highest rise in five years

The dawn of the £10,000 season ticket is nearing as commuters will see the highest price hike in five years. 

Rail fares will rise by 3.6per cent from January in line with inflation, which for many will add hundreds of pounds to their ticket in what has been described as a "kick in the teeth". 

It will see commuter season tickets on the most expensive routes approaching the £10,000 mark, with fares on the hour long Swindon to London line rising by £328 to £9,448 with tube travel - more than a third of the town's average salary. 

David Sidebottom, director of Transport Focus, the independent transport user watchdog, said: “This is an eye watering amount to pay for a commute. Time and time again passengers tell us they want a service they can more consistently rely on, in our latest survey only a third of commuters thought their ticket was value for money. 

“So while performance remains patchy and with pay and wages not keeping pace with inflation, passengers will feel rightly aggrieved if they are paying much higher rises next January. Passengers deserve a fairer deal.”

Whilst the average commuter will see their bill increase to £2,888, season tickets on Virgin trains between Birmingham and London are the most expensive and will rise to £10,637. 

Even passengers on the beleaguered Southern Rail route from London to Brighton will see their yearly ticket rise by around £163 to £4,699. 

The 3.6pc rise - almost double that of last year - is the highest since 2013 and means that the price of a season ticket has increased almost 40 per cent in the last decade. 

Regulated fare rises are capped at the rate of the Retail Price Index (RPI) measure of inflation, which was announced by the Office of National Statistics yesterday (TUES). 

Critics argue that it should be capped at the Consumer Prices Index (CPI), which is more reliable and is used for changes to most government controlled funding. 

James Tucker, ONS head of consumer price inflation, says RPI "is not a good measure and we do not recommend its use."

Research by the Rail, the Maritime and Transport (RMT) and the TUC has shown rail fares have been increasing at twice the rate of pay rises in recent years.

Natasha Coello, 36, who was injured on a train that hit buffers at King's Cross Station just before the increase was announced, questioned how rail companies can justify it.

She said: "We all commute because we want to have more opportunities and better wages in order to pay for the roof over our head, but unfortunately the fares do not even allow you that opportunity due to the cost."

She pays £436.80 a month to travel form Stevenage to London and is often forced to stand despite first class being empty and has to contend with delays, missing rail staff and now injuries. 

The finance manager added: "How can they justify these rail prices when on some of the route you are having to stand like sardines with so many issues happening on a regular basis?"

Meanwhile, rail unions stepped up their calls for the railway industry to be bought back into public ownership, with Mick Cash, the RMT leader, calling for an end to "Government sponsored racketeering".

Around 40 per cent of rail fares are regulated including season tickets, anytime fares and some off-peak returns but the rise is generally seen as a benchmark across the network. 

The Government argues that on average 97p in every £1 of a fare reinvested in the railway. 

A Department for Transport spokesperson said: “The Government carefully monitors how rail fares and average earnings change, and keeps under review the way fare levels are calculated."