RAIL fares will rise by 3.6 per cent when price changes come into force in the new year.

The Office for National Statistics said the Retail Price Index measure of inflation, which is used to calculate train ticket prices, rose by 3.6 per cent in July.

The prospect of higher fares has led to increasing calls for the railway industry to be renationalised.

However, Bolton Rail Users Group chairman Jeff Davies says that renationalisation would not solve the problem of increasing ticket prices.

He said: “This is an annual exercise in which the rail companies have no choice. They are obliged to follow the direction of the government.

“We don’t like these increases, but this has been government policy for years now.

“We are a non-political organisation and have no fixed beliefs, but calls from unions for renationalisation of rail services would not make a scrap of difference because it is the government driving these increases.”