Commuters who travel during rush hour peak face steeper fare rise

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Rail commuters who travel in the height of the rush hour face steeper fare rises under proposals being considered by ministers.

The option of a ^super-peak^ ticket is still regarded as a viable option and transport campaigners believe it will be included in the latest instalment of the Government^s fare review which is due to be published in the Spring.

Rail passengers, returning to work this week, have already been hit with an average 4.2 per cent rise in the cost of their season tickets.

Overcrowding during the rush hour remains a major problem, despite investment in new carriages and according to figures recently published by the Department for Transport the busiest trains can carry 50 per cent more passengers than their capacity.

One option floated in Whitehall ^ known as ^peak spreading^ would see even higher fares charged during the busiest part of the rush hour, while fares on slightly earlier and later trains would be cut.

The prospect of even higher fare rises for passengers who have faced 10 years of above inflation fare increases would be difficult to sell politically. Suggestions of a seven per cent premium, proposed in a DfT^» rail value for money study, have already been ruled out by the DfT as being ^unaffordable for many commuters^.

But more modest increases, which would take longer to have an impact, are possible with the carrot of cheaper fares at other times being considered as an incentive to encourage people to vary their working day.

The Olympics saw commuters alter their starting and finishing time thus avoiding the feared transport chaos which many thought the Games would bring.

Flexible ticketing is already being included as a requirement in the latest round of rail franchises and it could be used to introduce the more sophisticated fare structure needed to smooth passenger flows.

Calculations by the Campaign for Better Transport suggest that a three per cent premium, for example, would add ^83.40 to the cost of an annual season ticket from Woking to London on top of the ^2,896 from January. For commuters coming into the capital from Sevenoaks, this would add ^89.40, bringing the cost of an annual season ticket up to ^3,201.40.

^It's extraordinary that the Government is still even thinking of doing this. Super peak pricing would hit already hard-pressed commuters in their pockets, and the Government's own analysis shows that it wouldn't do anything about overcrowding,^ said Stephen Joseph, the Campaign^s chief executive. ^We want the Government's fares review to make the fares system simpler and more affordable, not even more complex.^

Earlier this week Norman Baker, the rail minister, defended the latest fare rises saying it was ^only right^ that passengers paid more for the biggest rail investment programme since the 19th century.

But Sustrans, an environmental transport charity, warned that continued above inflation rail fare rises was forcing people into car ownership, which they could not afford.