Commuters are spending up to five times as much of their salary on season tickets compared to the rest of Europe (Picture: PA)

Commuters are spending up to five times as much of their salary on season tickets compared to the rest of Europe, a new study has revealed.

Train ticket prices soar in biggest increase in five years

Fares are due to go up by an average of 3.4% today, with season tickets going up by 3.6% – the largest increase since 2013 – sparking protests outside railway stations across the country.

The TUC said workers travelling from Chelmsford in Essex to London will have to pay 13% of their salary for a £381 monthly season ticket.

That compares with 2% for a comparable commute of around 30 miles in France (£66), 3% in Italy (£65), 4% in Germany (£118) and 5% in Spain (£108) and Belgium (£144).


Season tickets will increase a third faster than wages in 2018, said the TUC.

Fares are due to go up by an average of 3.4% today, with season tickets going up by 3.6% (Picture: PA)

TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady said: ‘Another year, another price increase. Many commuters will look with envy to their continental cousins, who enjoy reasonably priced journeys to work.



‘Employers can help out by offering zero-interest season ticket loans, or offering more flexible work hours and locations.

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‘But ultimately the Government need to take our railways back into public hands. That will stop hundreds of millions being siphoned off by private rail firms, and allow us to put passengers first.’

Mick Cash, general secretary of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union, said: ‘While the British passenger is being pumped for cash, the same private companies are axing safety-critical staff and security on our trains and stations.

‘It’s a national scandal that private profit comes before public safety on our rail network.

‘Even worse, with 75% of Britain’s railways in overseas hands, it is the British people who are subsidising state-run rail operations across the continent.

‘The answer to this racket is a full return to public ownership of Britain’s railways and an end to this gross profiteering at the fare-payers expense.

Here’s what a season ticket in UK would cost you for a 30-mile commute compared to the rest of Europe (Picture: Metro.co.uk/Myles Goode)

Mick Whelan, leader of the train drivers’ union Aslef said: ‘Workers have missed out on real pay rises for years. It is unfair that this subsidised industry drives up transport poverty.

‘These fare rises hurt the communities and industries that they should be supporting, and this is without even counting the scandalous cost of parking at certain stations.’

Manuel Cortes, leader of the Transport Salaried Staffs Association, said: ‘Every year UK passengers are forced to pay more to Holland, Germany, France and Italy, all of whom currently own our train operating companies.

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‘Yet, it’s all talk and no trousers when it comes to taking back control from the foreign companies who own large swathes of our infrastructure including our railways.

‘Money made out of passengers here is invested in fare subsidies there.

Unite officer Bobby Morton said: ‘Millions of commuters are being held to ransom by the greedy privatised rail companies.

‘Rail travellers, who are seeing their wages lag far behind this fare increase, are being asked to take another hit to their incomes to pay for expensive and often unreliable trains.

‘Every day the case for the public ownership of the rail industry grows stronger.’

The RMT said every penny of this year’s fare rise will go straight into the profits of the train operators.



A Department for Transport spokesman said: ‘We are investing in the biggest modernisation of our railways since the Victorian times to improve services for passengers – providing faster and better, more comfortable trains with extra seats.

‘This includes the first trains running though London on the Crossrail project, an entirely new Thameslink rail service and continuing work on the transformative Great North Rail Project.

‘We keep fare prices under constant review and the price rises for this year are capped in line with inflation, with 97p out of every £1 paid going back into the railway.’

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