Train bosses ‘trying to hide 10% fare rise from commuters’
Rail bosses were today accused of deliberately trying to hide fare increases of more than 10 per cent.
The increases, from January, will add hundreds of pounds to yearly season tickets.
Commuters were left in the dark, not knowing how much extra they will have to pay.
There was a furious reaction from the national passenger watchdogs — also not given any detailed information — and the rail unions.
Gerry Doherty, leader of the TSSA transport union, described the train companies as the "robber barons of the 21st century".
The Association of Train Operating Companies lumped all the increases together — peak and off-peak — in a desperate effort to reduce the average fare rise across the country to 6.2 per cent.
It refused to break down the figures or list how much the individual train operators would be ratcheting up the fares.
A senior rail source said ATOC had ordered its train company members not to brief the media before today's announcement for fear the figures would get out.
Unions warned commuter fares will increase by 30 per cent over the next four years. Mr Doherty accused ATOC of a "disgraceful and blatant attempt to hide the real level of fares".
On the decision not to itemise fares, ATOC said: "We are trying to give the public a general steer on how much, on average, fares will go up."
But Ashwin Kumar, director of Passenger Focus, the national watchdog, said the average rise of 6.2 per cent put out by ATOC would "mask rises on some routes of more than 10 per cent".
Research by the Standard shows commuters using Southeastern services from Kent and south-east London — including the new 140mph trains into St Pancras — will suffer the highest increases, with an annual ticket from Ramsgate to London rising by 12.8 per cent to £4,376.
