RAIL passengers face a nightmare start to 2008. Engineering works threaten to delay New Year’s Eve travellers and rail companies are to announce fare increases of up to 14.5% on some of the most overcrowded routes.

The price rises, to be introduced on Wednesday on commuter lines in the southeast, far exceed the 4.8% cap imposed by government on regulated fares.

They come as up to 60,000 passengers who were planning to travel by train on New Year’s Eve will be forced to endure long delays and catch buses because of engineering works on the West Coast mainline. Passenger watchdogs say that the price rises are unjustified and accuse the train companies of exploiting the “captive market” of season ticket holders.

Anthony Smith, chief executive of Passenger Focus, said: “They are penalising commuters who have no choice. Many are having to fork out hundreds of pounds extra but are seeing little for it in terms of improvement in services.” The price cap requires the average overall fare increase imposed by operators to be no more than 4.8%. This has not stopped many companies from raising the fares on their most popular routes by significantly more while leaving the less travelled ones almost untouched.

The biggest increase is in Kent, where Southeastern Trains raised the cost of a weekly season ticket from Hayes to London by 14.5%, while the price of an annual season ticket from Canterbury to London rose by 11.1%, to £3,480.

Passenger groups were most concerned, however, about fare increases by First Great Western (FGW), Britain’s worst-performing rail company. FGW has a target in its contract to make 92% of trains run on time but has actually managed only 71% on its peak services.

According to FGW its increases for regulated rail fares kept within the 4.8% cap. But London TravelWatch has queried this, pointing out that fare rises for season tickets on six of the company’s busiest routes, including Maidenhead to London Paddington, have increased on average by 8.7%.

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