THERESA MAY faces a furious new revolt as Tory MPs join Labour to bin an eye-watering rail fare hike.

Livid backbenchers said a “fare freeze” was the minimum the Government should do for passengers who have suffered on Southern and Northern Rail this year.

Tory backbenchers are furious the PM hasn't done anything to prevent a rail fare rise Credit: PA:Press Association

Conservative backbencher Tim Loughton said a rumoured 3.5 per cent ticket price increase would “go beyond adding insult to injury”.

He told The Sun: “A fare rise would be absolutely outrageous. In any other customer facing industry we’d be looking at proper refunds.”

And Treasury aide Chris Philp insisted Transport Secretary Chris Grayling had to deliver on plans announced in June to give commuters on Southern a month’s worth of compensation.

He said: “No one who has suffered should be paying more next year. People have paid for a service and it’s not been received.”

Labour demanded a fare freeze on Sunday – and called for a windfall tax on train operators.

Official inflation figures tomorrow are due to show retail prices rose by 3.5 per cent in July. The July figure is taken as the basis for annual fare hikes in January.

Rail passengers experienced chaos and overcrowding this summer due to controversial timetable changes Credit: PA:Press Association

A 3.5 per cent rise would push up season tickets for between London and Ashford by £188 to £5,567, London and Southampton by £200 to £5,902. A season ticket from Macclesfield to Manchester on troubled Northern Rail would also rise by £90 to £2,663.

The hikes come after a summer marked by timetabling chaos and cancelled services across the country.

Southern has warned passengers this week they face 34 days of disruption on the Brighton to London mainline from September due to “improvement” works. Fares across the UK have soared by 40 per cent over the past decade.

The Department for Transport yesterday said that while further hikes were “unwelcome” they were essential to funding work on the railways. But Tories have urged the Government to follow ex-Chancellor George Osborne – who capped regulated rail fares in 2011.

Insiders argue that unions must share part of the blame for soaring ticket prices as around 25p in every £1 spent goes on wages. Labour’s former Transport Secretary Andrew Adonis said customer dissatisfaction was running at levels that would “shame” the likes of major supermarkets.

He stormed: “Watchdogs Which? say that one in five rail passengers are dissatisfied with their last journey. Imagine that was a supermarket, with one in five dissatisfied with the last food they bought. Passengers shouldn’t be expected to pay more for worse.”

SUN SAYS TOMORROW, official figures are likely to suggest that train fares will go up by another 3.5 per cent in January. If you’re a commuter who has put up with delayed and cancelled trains, you’ll be wondering what you’re paying for. After a disastrous year, there is no other industry that would turn round and ask customers for even more. The failure of the Government to take responsibility, blaming unions or claiming the cash is for “investment”, is simply not good enough. It’s the same as last year’s excuse. It is time for a radical overhaul — but that does not mean nationalisation. Far from it. Our railways need MORE private sector involvement. The hybrid system we have, in which private operators rely on publicly owned tracks and have their fares regulated by government, has led us into the worst of both worlds. Transport supremo Chris Grayling needs to take on the unions once and for all. And he needs to introduce real competition on the railways, giving operators far more freedom. Commuters deserve better than finger-pointing and higher fares.