COMMUTERS across Essex are facing paying hundreds of pounds more for their season tickets for 2018.

Regulated rail fares, including season tickets, are to rise by 3.6 per cent next year.

The rise, which is linked July’s retail price index measure of inflation, will take effect from January.

Train operators can raise the fares by as much as the price index, however the final decision on increases for Greater Anglia passengers will not be made until later this year.

The figure is the highest it has been since 2011, when it was five per cent.

A Greater Anglia spokesman said: “Fares policy for regulated rail fares including season tickets and standard day returns is set by the government of the day and linked to the previous year’s Retail Price Index.

“Greater Anglia can set the price of some unregulated fares, including Advance Singles such as Norwich to London for £10 or Southend to London for £5.

“We are constantly working to improve services and offer better value for money to our customers.

“We are currently investing huge amounts in the railway in East Anglia including £1.4 billion replacing every single train with brand new trains from 2019 and we’re spending £60 million improving stations.”

Derek Monnery, of the Essex Rail Users Federation, said commuters would find the increases unreasonable when they were yet to see new trains and track improvements.

He said: “The trains are getting terribly unreliable – we need them to be more reliable before there are fare increases.

“I think they have no grounds to put fares up as we are not getting the service we are paying for.

“There is nothing to show that things are going to get better. We need to see something positive like Government commitment to do these works rather than woolly maybe, maybe nots.

“They have put these schemes off for far too long.”

Paul Plummer, chief executive of the Rail Delivery Group, said: “Money from fares pays to run and improve the railway, making journeys better, boosting the economy, creating skilled jobs and supporting communities across Britain, and politicians set increases to season tickets.

“It’s also the case that many major rail industry costs rise directly in line with RPI.

“Rail companies are working together to improve performance now, adding thousands more seats over the next 18 months and, longer term, simplifying fares and ticket buying so that the country has the railway it needs to prosper.”

The announcement lead rail unions to call for the industry to be renationalised.

Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union leader Mick Cash called the fare hikes a "kick in the teeth" for passengers.

He said: "The huge hike in fares confirmed today is another kick in the teeth for passengers who already fork out colossal sums to travel on rammed out, unreliable trains while the private operators are laughing all the way to the bank."

Research by the RMT and the TUC has shown rail fares have been increasing at twice the rate of pay rises in recent years.

A Department for Transport spokesman said: "The Government carefully monitors how rail fares and average earnings change, and keeps under review the way fare levels are calculated.

"We are investing in the biggest rail modernisation programme for over a century to improve services for passengers - providing faster and better trains with more seats.

"We have always fairly balanced the cost of this investment between the taxpayer and the passenger.

"We are driving the industry hard to improve efficiency to ensure we maximise the value of passengers' and taxpayers' investment in the railways.

"Regulated rail fares are capped in line with inflation for next year. In the five years to 2019, Network Rail is spending more than £40 billion to maintain and improve the network.

"On average, 97 per cent of every £1 of a passenger's fare goes back into the railway."