Attack on '£5,000 rail season tickets'

Rail fare rises mean some commuters will have to pay more than £5,000 for season tickets from Sunday, the Campaign for Better Transport (CBT) said today.

This figure equals roughly 20 per cent of the average UK salary and is the equivalent of Transport Secretary Philip Hammond paying more than £27,000 for a season ticket, the CBT added.

Backed by actor Michael Palin, the CBT will next week launch a campaign entitled Fair Fares Now to coincide with the return to work of travellers after the festive break.

Season ticket holders face average rises of 5.8 per cent, with some Kent commuters having to fork out for increases of almost 13 per cent.

CBT chief executive Stephen Joseph said: "Politicians need to start living in the real world and understand that people simply cannot afford to pay a fifth of their income just to do a day's work."