CAMPAIGNERS expressed anger after new rail fare rises of up to 3 per cent were announced yesterday, branding the new prices a “kick in the teeth.”

Train ticket increases of approximately 2.7 per cent are due to land in January under a new ticket-pricing policy based on the retail price index.

The rise is significantly higher than the consumer price index rate of inflation, which currently stands at 1.8 per cent, and is expected to cost millions of commuters more than £100 each in extra travel costs.

Campaign for Better Transport chief executive Darren Shirley said: “Next year’s fare rise will come as a blow to passengers already paying thousands of pounds to endure overcrowding, delays and trains that fail to stop at stations as scheduled.”

The proposed hike comes as new Transport Secretary Grant Shapps vowed to tackle poor punctuality on Britain's railways.

Labour shadow transport secretary Andy McDonald said: “It is outrageous that fares are set to rise above inflation yet again.

“Under the Conservatives, rail travel gets more expensive in real terms each year, even as the performance of the railway declines. Passengers are paying more for less.

“Not only are these fare hikes unfair, they undermine action on climate change by pricing people off the railway.

“Labour will take the railway back into public ownership in order to improve services and cap fares, to make it work for passengers not shareholders.”

Aslef general secretary Mick Whelan said: “The Tories want people to pay more for a poorer service — that’s not a great offer, is it? For passengers — or for voters at the next election.

“We need to put the wheels and the steel back together in a vertically integrated publicly owned railway fit for the 21st century.”