LONDON, Aug. 13 (Xinhua) -- Train passengers will learn of wage-busting fare increases this week, despite chaotic scenes at stations on the Northern network after a third successive wave of Sunday cancellations, reports said Monday.
The fare increases, expected to amount to 3.5 percent from next January, will add hundreds of pounds to the cost of many season tickets even though new figures from Which?, a British search engine which is supposed to offer product reviews, consumer services and expert advice, reveal that punctuality and customer satisfaction with Britain's railways has slumped.
Arriva, which operates the Northern franchise, scrapped 80 out of 1,500 trains on Sunday, with Liverpool, Greater Manchester and Lancashire being the worst affected areas.
Greater Manchester's deputy mayor Beverley Hughes branded the cancellations "chaotic and unacceptable."
Season ticket prices could rise by hundreds of pounds in 2019, depending on inflation figures to be published by the British Office for National Statistics Wednesday this week.
Fare increases set to take effect in January are pegged to the retail prices index (RPI), a measure of inflation significantly higher than the consumer prices index (CPI), which more closely matches wages.
If July's RPI comes in close to the expected 3.5 percent, passengers would face hefty rises, with a commuter from Cambridge into London stations such as King's Cross seeing their annual season ticket jump by 173 pounds (some 220 U.S. dollars) to 5,125 pounds (6,543 U.S. dollars).
The average journey time between London and Cambridge Station is one hour and six minutes. The fastest journey time is one hour and three minutes. On an average weekday, there are 156 trains per day travelling from London to Cambridge Station.
The fare increases are likely to be greeted with anger by passengers, with a new survey by consumer group Which? revealing increasing exasperation with train reliability.
The latest timetabling fiasco to hit Britain's railway network came less than two months after the boss of GTR, the company behind London's Thameslink service, was forced to quit following a flurry of cancellations and delays over its network.
