We have been contacted my many people, concerned at the vast fare increases from January, that exceeded the ‘average 6% increase’ much published by the government and rail industry.

To take but two examples:

Daily ticket, East Tilbury to Barking including LU zones 2356

Old Price: £8.80 New Price £11.20, around a 27% increase.

Daily ticket, Grays to Canary Wharf

Old price £6.10 New price £8.40, around a 37% increase

TRUG have received the following explanation for the increases:

Using the Grays to Zone 3 fare as an example, the 2008 Anytime Day Return fare was £6.30. This increased to £8.40 in January 2009 as part of the recent changes, which is a 33% increase. This fare is summation of the c2c fare between Grays and Upminster and the Transport for London fare from Upminster to Zone (Zones 3456). The c2c part of the fare increased in January from £4.10 to £4.40, an increase of 7% and broadly in line with c2c's stated policy of increasing fares by inflation +1%. The TfL element of the fare increased from £2.00 to £4.00, an increase of 100%.

However, this brings the "add-on" fare into line with the Oyster single fare for the same journey. Previously, a passenger buying a ticket from Upminster to West Ham would be paying twice as much for the tube journey as someone travelling from Grays. In this sense, it has corrected one of the many fares anomalies that exist.

The Mayor of London has stated that Transport for London fares will increase this year by an average of inflation +1%. TfL stated that this is worked out to bring an increase in revenue of 6% overall, based on the same number of ticket sales. Therefore while some fares may increase significantly, the average increase will be 6%. However, unlike with the Department for Transport, there is no cap on individual fare increases in any particular year.

We understand that fare setting and regulation is a complex area. Our concern, however, is that passengers have not been properly informed about how fares changes will affect them. This seems to be an ongoing theme, as in previous years some c2c ticket prices have increased beyond the stated average, following the introduction of the zonal fares structure and to ‘amend anomalies’.

Quite reasonably, when the travelling public are told that fares will increase on average by the rate of inflation +1%, they expect their fares to be broadly in line with this. We consider that it is the duty of all operators to tell passengers how much their fares are changing and to explain those changes to them, well before the changes take effect.

Updated 22/01/2009