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RTG Sunderland Message Boards
by train are set to get more expensive in January.
Commuters dreading the annual train ticket price hike will be disappointed to learn fares will increase next year by an average of 6.2%.
Regulated fares, which include season tickets and account for around 40% of all tickets, will rise by a maximum of 5.8%, which is July's RPI inflation rate plus 1%.
But unregulated fares, which are supposed to cover leisure travel, could soar by up to 10% on some routes.
Although steep, the price rises are likely to be lower than those in a year's time, when the annual price rise formula changes to RPI plus 3% across the network.
The latest price hike is "simply outrageous" at a time when many workers are facing pay freezes and job cuts, according to Gerry Doherty, leader of the TSSA rail union.
"We will see fares soar by 30% over the next four years as ministers and private train companies hold passengers to ransom with the lifting of the fares cap formula," he said.
"Ministers claim this is to pay for a better railway. Passengers will regard that as a sick joke seeing as we have the most expensive and overcrowded railway in Europe."