6% fare rises on trains

Rail commuters in the South-East will be hit with inflation-busting fare increases of up to six per cent, industry chiefs are set to announce.

The increases - more than double the rate of inflation of 2.6 per cent - come despite continuing criticism of delays and over-crowding.

The rises for peak services are being allowed by the Government for the first time since privatisation in the Nineties.

Hundreds of thousands of commuters, will face average rises of four to six per cent from next month.

Even worse off will be off-peak travellers, who will see fares jump by up to 10 per cent on the new South Eastern Trains (SET), which replaced Connex services from Kent into Charing Cross and Victoria.

The new fares were immediately condemned by the official passenger watchdog. Anthony Smith, national director of the Rail Passengers Council, described the increases as "very disappointing, given that performance is so poor".

He added: "Above inflation fare rises will be very difficult for passengers to understand because they aren't getting what they paid for."

The announcement will spark massive commuter and political fury, especially in the capital where only three out of four rush-hour services arrive on time.

There will be fears that the combination of higher fares and no improvement in service will force many passengers back into their cars.

Critics will highlight the fact that SET passengers face among the highest increases - despite the franchise now being under government control.

Connex, the former owner, was stripped of the contract because of alleged non-compliance over conditions attached to millions of pounds of government funding.

The train operators are being allowed to increase peak-time fares above inflation for the first time since they were pegged by the then Tory government as a means of selling rail privatisation to a sceptical public.

The old formula was inflation minus one per cent - under the new rules it is inflation plus one per cent. But, because of the complexity of the fare structure - depending on past performance and previous fare rates on individual routes - many increases will be higher.

A spokesman for the Association of Train Operating Companies confirmed it intends to announce the new fare rates tomorrow.

Commuter anger will be further fuelled by a report from the controlling Strategic Rail Authority to be published later this week which shows there has been little or no improvement in train timekeeping this year over last.

The SRA report will also trigger an industry row over who is to blame for trains arriving late - the operators say they get all the abuse from passengers when, in reality, more than half of all delays are the responsibility of Network Rail because of breakdowns in the tracks, signals and power supplies.