Thames Valley Train Fare Increases

3 January 2013, 06:00

As season train tickets from the Thames Valley into London rise, a campaign group say it's at a time of "no perceptible improvement in services''.

The average season ticket increase of 4.2%, which takes effect today, is the 10th above-inflation increase in a row, said the Railfuture group.

The Association of Train Operating Companies (Atoc) has said that the overall average rise, including non-season tickets, will be 3.9%, with some fares not going up as much as this. 

But with some non-season-ticket unregulated fares allowed to be increased by an unlimited amount, Railfuture said that some fares could 

Here are examples of fare rises. The table compares the price of a 12-month season ticket bought this month to one bought from January 2 2013. The table does NOT include the price paid if within-London travelcards are also purchased for Tube and bus journeys in the capital.

                                DEC 2012   JAN 2013     PERCENTAGE RISE

Basingstoke-London       £3,800      £3,960         4.21%

Reading-London            £3,800      £3,960         4.21%

Aylesbury-London          £3,520      £3,632         3.18%

Bracknell-London           £3,800      £3,960         4.21%

Oxford-London              £4,348      £4,532         4.2%

In a statement First Great Western said; "We understand that these are tough times for many people but the money raised by Government through fares ensures investment in more trains, better stations and faster services.

"The price of season tickets is regulated by the Government, and while we have some room to manoeuvre to reflect changes in demand on particular routes, for example, the average will stay the same.

"From January, none of our season tickets will rise by more than the Government's regulated fares formula.

"We have used the Government's fare guidelines as the basis for all our fare changes regardless of whether they are regulated or not so, aside from sensible rounding, none of our fares will rise by more than the Government's formula."

While Chiltern said; "Government set the formula for how fares should be increased and we follow this in line with our franchise requirements.

"As with all businesses, our costs increase each year and we do not receive any subsidy from Government; in fact we pay a premium to run our services. 

"We always try to keep our fares as low as we can and our average increase is lower than the industry average at 3.5% across the route.   

"Our value credentials are important to us and we carefully consider our fares in line with other routes and have a range of value fares available (family tickets, railcards, Groupsave)."