Regulated rail fares will rise by 3.6% in January 2018

Regulated rail fares will increase by 3.6% increase from January 2018, the highest rise for five years.  Train operators can raise fares by as much as the Retail Prices Index (RPI) figure for July.

The RPI for July was at its highest level since 2011, when it was 5%. In contrast, the more widely used Consumer Prices Index (CPI) was unchanged at 2.6%. Both the RPI and CPI figures come from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

The rises will affect ‘anytime’ and some off-peak fares as well as season tickets in England and Wales. In Scotland, it is mainly commuters who will be affected, with off-peak fares rising by a smaller amount.

The Scottish government currently limits rises in off-peak fares to RPI minus 1%. There are no plans for increases in Northern Ireland.

Unregulated fares, which include super off-peak travel and advance tickets, will be set in December.

The government has said fare increases are justified by improvements to the network. A Department for Transport spokesperson said: “We are investing in the biggest rail modernisation programme for over a century to improve services for passengers – providing faster and better trains with more seats," a spokesperson for the Department for Transport said. “We have always fairly balanced the cost of this investment between the taxpayer and the passenger.”

The Rail Delivery Group, which represents train operators, also pointed to new investment, saying there would be an extra 170,000 seats for commuters by the end of 2019.

Campaign for Better Transport is calling on the government to hold regulated rail fares at their current level and rethink the way it calculates fares in future to prevent rail fares increasing faster than people's incomes and to help millions of part-time workers, who are already disadvantaged by the lack of flexible rail tickets.

Stephen Joseph, the campaign’s chief executive, said: “This rise will be the highest since 2013 and will leave many commuters struggling to meet the cost of their commute next year. That's why we want the government to bring in a fares freeze for January; it's frozen fuel duty for the last seven years and we think rail fares should be given the same treatment.

“It's unacceptable that the government continues to use RPI to calculate rail fare rises. Passengers would be forgiven for thinking they are being taken for a ride when RPI has been dropped as an official measure for most other things. We want the Government to commit to changing the way it calculates future fare increases and start using the Consumer Price Index (CPI) instead so that rises more accurately reflect real inflation and ensure rail travel remains affordable for all.”

Passenger group Transport Focus also said it would like to see the RPI measure being replaced by the Consumer Prices Index (CPI), to calculate rail fare increases. “Wages are not keeping pace with inflation and performance remains patchy," said a spokesperson for the group. “Passengers, especially commuters, face potential strike action, the consequences of the continual rise in passenger numbers, and disruption caused by railway upgrades.”

However, the DfT has rejected the idea of using CPI to determine price rises, saying RPI was used across the rail industry, for example in calculating the cost of running train services.