Rail and transport union TSSA is warning that any rise in rail fares for next year would price workers off the network after an unexpected rise in the rate of inflation.
The Retail Prices Index (RPI) went up from 4.4% in June to 4.8% in July latest official figures show.
Though the government has not outlined how regulated fares will be set for 2026, ticket increases are usually calculated by adding one percentage point to July’s RPI figures.
That would mean a rise of 5.8% if the pattern used in the past were to continue.
TSSA General Secretary, Maryam Eslamdoust said: “It’s vital that the government protects the travelling public from any unnecessary rise in rail fares as a result of this inflation spike.
“The last thing passengers need is to be clobbered by higher fares and pushed off the railways at a time when we need people to be making more journeys for work and business reasons and in so doing powering the economy.
“Regulated fares account for almost half of all rail journeys so we are urging the Department for Transport to keep ticket prices affordable so that we can get people out of their cars and onto the railways.
“If we want public transport to be fully used by the public, it has to be priced for the public. Affordable fares mean full trains & cleaner air.”
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