Rail commuters are facing ticket rises of around 8% next year, following the release of latest inflation figures.

July's RPI inflation figure determines the rise in regulated fares, like season tickets.

RPI inflation for July was unchanged at 5%, meaning the average season ticket will rise by around 8%, although some companies may charge more.

Rail Minister Theresa Villiers said "difficult decisions" on fares had been taken due to the budget deficit.

The rises are part of the government's agenda to reduce the cost to the taxpayer of running the rail network.

For the last few years the formula for fare increases has generally been RPI inflation plus 1%, but for the next three years it is RPI plus 3%.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14538167

They're doing a crappy job of encouraging me to get the train!

So all our wages spent on travel expenses

It's "only" RPI + 1% (6% total) in Haggisville. Still a bloody rip-off. I only want to ride on the train - not buy the flippin' carraige !!!

Precisely.

It seems to be a competition; rail or petrol. How about both.

Well fcuk off as I'm going to keep using my car.

The British public is basically subisiding the private profits of the directors of Stagecoach, Virgin, First, Arriva and the rest of the fookers who run our railways. Although not perfect, when British Rail ran the services it put the profits back into the rail network. It was run by experienced railway people not accountants and the like. It was also a lot cheaper and required a lot less public subsidy. Also, BR built its own trains meaning lots of skilled jobs for British workers.

Everything about John Major's privatisation of BR in 1995/96 stinks. And we're still paying the price, literally, today. The fooker!!

Before all the trendy re-branding crap, British Railways (remember them?) did a good job of running the rail system. Yes. we used to joke about the curly sandwiches etc. but it WORKED !!

That, as Touchstone said, also put the profits (?) back into the railways - not into the pockets of some suited gits in the smoke.

Yeah, bring back Dr. Beeching!

er no, wrong one!

Oh, was there more than one British Railways then? (JK!)

Yes, there was a whole one, then there was a quarter remaining one

As in "British Railways (remember them?) did a good job of running the rail system" - into the ground?

It was Beeching that ran them into the ground, if you go to most other countries, the rail services are not just main-line based but also local services (like merseyrail). Beeching removed most of the local stuff, as it was just before the time a lot of road networks were starting to get jammed up, there was a good chance that the local services may have picked up enormously. It was fairly obvious that cars were getting more popular and showed a complete lack of foresight. (imho)

Really, that was my point, if today you might think BR did such a great job of running things, then you might be looking through somewhat rose-tinted glasses... I remember it a little differently, I suppose...

That is true. Prior to Beeching (and BR), the railways recovered quite a bit from the ruin left by war. Money was an issue but removing a substantial amount of the countries infrastructure would seem to be a false economy.

Virgin Media is the worst!

Good to see Stagecoach bosses awarding themselves massive payouts. Got to love privatisation. Aren't buses and trains so much better since the Tories flogged them off?

Guardian: Stagecoach Fatcats get big bonuses

Bring Back British Rail