Commuter misery as rail fares rise

Rail commuters are used to an uncomfortable journey to work, but today was something else. Passengers were told to avoid the country’s busiest station, Waterloo, after a points failure and a train derailment, a Tube station had to be evacuated during the morning rush hour, and to cap it all, a train hit the buffers at London’s King’s Cross.

So it was a less than auspicious moment for the Government to announce that rail fares for millions of passengers will go up by 3.6% from next January, the biggest rise in five years.