Rail fares from the district into London have increased by more than £130 on average this year.

Greater Anglia’s Southminster-Southend line to London has seen the average 3.1 per cent increase in season ticket prices.

The most expensive season ticket is from Southminster at £4,592.

Annual season tickets for services from Southminster, Burnham and Althorne to London Liverpool Street have increase by £140 from last year.

The same ticket from North Fambridge will cost an extra £136, while South Woodham Ferrers has seen the smallest increase of £132.

Commuters from the Dengie voiced their unhappiness at the fares.

One commuter who moved from Southminster said: “I moved to Chelmsford from Southminster to avoid paying for a service which quite frankly isn’t up to the standard.

“I appreciate the same company still run my line but a ten-minute delay is far better than a cancelled train and a wait of around an hour.

“The rail replacement bus service most evenings last year was also diabolical as I spent more than one journey directing the driver to every station along the route.

“People shouldn’t have to move from where they live and love to find their commute to work bearable.”

Another long-term commuter said: “I have been commuting to London for the past 17 years from the Dengie.

“Each year I dread the rise of travel.

“I can only afford to buy weekly rather than yearly and am now paying £114.80 for a weekly ticket from Southminster to Liverpool Street – this has gone up from £111.30.

“I would say that on average there are delays or cancellations once a week if not more.

“My biggest issue is the service we get for the amount of money just doesn’t cut it.

“It does affect my budget, maybe not in a way that I can’t afford it but in a way that makes juggling life that little bit harder from a financial and travelling point of view.

A young commuter said: “How they can justify how high the prices are is beyond me. I spend nearly half my wage each month on train tickets.

“I’m 21 and I have to fork out nearly £500 a month just to get to work – and that’s with a railcard.

“Greater Anglia is a shambles – c2c customers don’t pay anywhere near as much.”

Greater Anglia is spending £1.4billion on new trains to replace every single train on their network.

Trains have started arriving for testing and will come into service from the middle of this year.

A Greater Anglia spokesman said: “Our average fare increase is 3.1 per cent, however, we’re freezing some fares including advance fares, which start from just £5 and can be up to between 60 and 70 per cent lower than walk-up fares.

“The 3.1 per cent increase applies to the majority of our Government-regulated fares, including most season tickets, anytime singles and returns. We need to apply this increase, as many of our costs will also increase in line with inflation.”