Buying tickets on the Trainline is twice as expensive as buying direct from the railway station's website, The Telegraph can reveal.

Passengers travelling on London North East Railway, the first line to be renationalised by the Government, are paying double for tickets bought through the site, which is the UK’s biggest train booking website.

A Telegraph investigation has found that the Trainline is frequently showing passengers "cheapest available” prices for single tickets which are actually twice the price of identical tickets available directly from London North East Railway’s own website.

LNER, which runs from London to Scotland, has admitted its ticketing system has been incompatible with the Trainline's for at least a year.

The Government-run operator took over from Virgin East Coast, a private firm, in June when it ended its franchise after making heavy losses.