The great train robbery

Anger and frustration boiled over at the ticket offices as the inflationbusting rises hit home.

The train operators, which each make tens of millions of pounds profit, brought in the highest commuter fare increases allowed under the regulations.

While regulated fares, which include most season tickets and peak-time tickets, have risen by an average of 4.8 per cent, some smashed through the 10 per cent mark. MPs, passenger watchdogs, and environmental groups joined the protests. Theresa Villiers, the shadow transport secretary, accused the Government of running the railways "like a Dutch auction" with passengers "priced off trains and back into their cars".

Under the increases:

All morning and evening peak tickets, including season and "Savers" serving London increase by 4.8 per cent on nearly every line - the biggest rise that is permitted by law.

Southeastern has been given special permission to increase its fares by three per cent above inflation to pay for additional investment in the service.

Off-peak rates for cheap day returns, advanced purchase and long distance open tickets go up by an average of 5.4 per cent - but in many cases by more.

One-day Travelcards and Travelcard season tickets - which combine rail, Tube and bus and are run by Transport for London - rise on average by 3.8 per cent, the July inflation figure on which all rises are based.

The rail companies sought to justify the maximum allowed rises by quoting government policy that they should recoup more of the cost of the service from those who use it rather than relying on the taxpayer to subsidise it.

Anthony Smith, chief executive of Passenger Focus, the national rail watchdog, accused the industry of "masking steep rises" on some routes by highlighting average increases.

Stephen Joseph, executive director of the Campaign for Better Transport (formerly Transport 2000), said: "If the Government is serious about tackling climate change, it must ensure train

First Great Western had some of the biggest individual increases. From Hayes, the cost of a weekly rail-only season ticket goes up from £24.80 to £28.50 (14.5 per cent). Weekly seasons from Bexleyheath (up from £25.10 to £28.50) and Woolwich Arsenal (£20.40 to £23.20) are the next worst hit with increases of 13 per cent.

On First Great Western services into Paddington, a yearly season ticket from Slough rises by £192 to £2,160 (9.8 per cent,) from Maidenhead by £224 to £2,544 (9.7 per cent) and from Langley by £176 to £2,012 (9.6 per cent).

Danielle Thornton, 29, a television producer from Maidenhead, said: "My monthly ticket used to cost £274.60. That has now gone up to £298. I'm very annoyed because obviously nobody's wages are going to have gone up by 10 per cent."

Organisers of a "fares strike" which hit FGW trains around Bristol last year said they would spread their campaign. Passengers on South West Trains said they would join to highlight "exorbitant fares and horribly cramped services".

TfL said it had its hands tied on Travelcard price increases, which went up despite single fares being been frozen on the Tube, buses, Docklands Light Railway and trams. One-day and season tickets have gone up because they also cover Londonend rail journeys, a spokesman said.