Passengers on some of Britain's railways are paying fares several times higher than those in other parts of the country, research reveals this week.

A study showing the difference between Britain's most expensive and cheapest train operators comes as ministers are set to publish a new railway strategy. It is feared that the government intends to encourage operators to raise fares to pay for the improvements.

The white paper, expected on Tuesday, will reveal details of plans to upgrade the national network over the five years from 2009 to 2014. A 30-year plan for future improvements will include new trains and better signalling allowing more trains to run.

Plans for longer trains and platforms to relieve overcrowding will be welcomed, but there is growing concern that recent fare rises will continue to help reduce the government's £3bn-a-year subsidy while at the same time paying for the improvements.

Susan Kramer, the Lib Dem shadow transport spokeswoman who carried out the fares research, said her party was making a formal appeal to the National Audit Office.

Under Labour, the cost of travelling by train has risen by six per cent above inflation, while the cost of driving has fallen by 10 per cent.

'There should be an urgent inquiry into the cost of unregulated fares, to stop passengers paying even more per mile in future,' said Kramer. 'How do ministers expect to get people out of their cars when the railways are so expensive?'

The most expensive ticket rates uncovered by the Lib Dems, who looked at three journeys on each of Britain's 22 operators last Thursday, were on Heathrow Express, where passengers could travel 27.06 miles for £10 on a saver return, which can only be used after 9.30am. In contrast, MerseyRail was the cheapest, offering 118.78 miles for £10.

The next most expensive were Gatwick Express (37.18 miles for £10) and Hull Trains (49.44 miles).

The most expensive intercity operator was CrossCountry, the service recently lost by Virgin Trains, at 53.66 miles, while the least expensive was Virgin West Coast at 69.26 miles.

The railway white paper will set targets for punctuality and capacity for Network Rail and announce how much money the company will get to do this. Network Rail has asked for £21bn for day-to-day running and another £7-8bn for improvements, including upgrading the London Thameslink route, a major refit of Birmingham New Street station, and new train carriages and longer platforms on crowded commuter routes.

It will also set out a 30-year plan with more ambitious ideas, including a new signalling system so trains can be timetabled closer together, new train fleets, some of which could be powered by biofuels, and tram-trains.

However a draft of part of the white paper, seen by The Observer, suggested other ways to relieve crowding could include removing seats and increasing fares in the 'shoulders' just before and after peak times, to encourage some commuters to travel earlier or later.

The plan could also disappoint campaigners hoping for a firm commitment to major schemes, including new north-south passenger and freight routes, and funding for an east-west Crossrail project under London. There is also cynicism about how much will change, after numerous Labour promises of similar improvements in the past.

How far does £10 get you?

Miles for £10 on a Saver Return

Heathrow Express 27

Gatwick Express 37

Hull Trains 49

One 53

Virgin Cross Country 54

Midland Mainline 56

Southern 57

TransPennine Express 59

South West Trains 64

First Great Western 65

Silverlink 67

C2c 67

GNER 68

Northern Rail 68

Southeastern 69

Virgin West Coast 69

Chiltern Railways 72

First Capital Connect 75

Central Trains 77

First ScotRail 84

Arriva Trains Wales 97

Merseyrail 119

See also:

Catch the best fares before they go

The Observer: July 22, 2007

As train operators raise ticket prices, rail travellers need to be smarter than ever, says Jon Robins

Tens of thousands of rail passengers face the prospect of years of inflation-busting price rises, following the news that Arriva has seen off Richard Branson's Virgin to win the Cross Country franchise. For the first time, a new operator has made it clear that the price for a series of improvements to the service will be paid at the ticket barrier: an average increase in unregulated fares of 3.4 per cent above inflation per year.

Jane Cobell of the rail consumer watchdog Passenger Focus reckons such increases on a network that runs from Aberdeen to Penzance and Stansted to Cardiff are likely to amount to a price increase of 50 per cent during the life of the franchise, which runs until 2015. To put this into context, standard-class 'unregulated' fares have risen by 10.9 per cent nationally (18.2 per cent on long-distance routes) between 1995 and 2005. Price caps, introduced following the privatisation of the rail system, protect 'regulated' fares - season tickets, saver returns and standard day returns. Increases on those fares are currently limited to 1 per cent above inflation.

'Our worry is that the train companies will need to claw their profits back and the only way to do this is through unregulated fares,' says Jo deBank of the passenger watchdog London Travelwatch. 'We don't want people to be priced off the trains, and while there's no doubt people can get very good deals, especially on long-distance trips, if they book well in advance, people don't want to do that. People want to turn up at the station and go.'

So how do you go about securing the (relatively) cheap seats? A recent report by Holiday Which? revealed that the train was the most expensive way to travel in the UK, dearer both than planes and (unsurprisingly) coaches on three major routes: London-Glasgow, Birmingham-Edinburgh and Manchester-Edinburgh.

'When we were doing our research [for the report], the cheapest tickets weren't available to us,' says Amanda Diamond, a journalist with Holiday Which?. Cheap single fares of £13.50 were advertised on the London-Glasgow trip, but no such tickets were available even seven weeks ahead of travelling. A £77 'super advance return' was the best option. This was beaten each week over a seven-week period by low-cost flights ranging from £37.67 (Ryanair, Stansted) to £66.98 (Easyjet, Luton).

Allan McLean of Virgin insists cheap seats are available. He reckons the report is 'misleading' as it was undertaken in the pre-Christmas period and contains 'inaccurate figures'. 'As a rough guide, in any week we'll be offering 350,000 advance tickets at reduced prices,' he says, adding that '10,000 a day don't get booked'. Diamond advises passengers to remember that timetable information is set 12 weeks in advance and so to book tickets as early as possible.

National Rail Enquiries this month overhauled its online journey planner (www.nationalrail.co.uk) to make it 'simpler to find the cheapest rail ticket' by introducing a fare search option. There are some 70 different fare types.

Passenger Focus road-tested the new site for The Observer, asking four passengers to put it through its paces. They were asked to score the site out of 10, based on criteria such as whether the ticket they wanted was available; whether the site was user-friendly; and whether they would use it again. The revamped site scored a less than resounding 4.25.

Sophie Harris, a student at Bournemouth University, put in details for a journey from London Paddington to Exeter St David's and a journey from Horsley to Bournemouth.

'I did find the times and prices that I wanted, but it wasn't so easy to compare,' she said. 'Easy to use, as long as you know the specific stations, and I'd probably use it again.'

Alex Revell, a 27-year-old from London, gave the site three out of 10 - generous, given his failed attempts to find the right fare for another London-Glasgow journey. 'I don't even know if it's working properly,' he complained. 'I hope it isn't, otherwise it's not very good.'

The fact that you can't actually buy through National Rail Enquiries is 'frustrating', says Cobell, identifying a major weakness. She advises passengers to book online directly with train companies to avoid the possibility of incurring other fees from third party websites, such as the 2 per cent Thetrainline.com charges for credit card bookings.

Rail firms themselves also offer discounts: GNER currently has 10 per cent off its lowest advance fares when booked online.

Buying two singles instead of a return can result in a saving, although, as Diamond points out, 'availability is limited and sometimes you can only travel during anti-social hours'. Cobell says passengers can make more of 'anomalies' within the system by, for example, splitting a journey in two instead of buying a 'through' ticket, although some rail operators frown on such practices.

You can save yourself a whopping £66.10 on the 7.03am from Birmingham to Glasgow, for example - where the price of the open single is £136.50 - by buying a single to Penrith for £49.50 and a saver single on to Glasgow for £20.90.

'They key thing for finding cheap seats is perseverance,' says Diamond.

Off-peak problems

Valya Schooling, a pensioner from Brockenhurst in Hampshire, often goes to London to see her family. 'I already pay £20 - and that's off-peak, with one third off with my railcard,' she says. 'We'd love to be able to afford to take our grandchildren to London for the day; however, the cost of travel on top of everything else will stop us. I guarantee 99 per cent of the elderly on fixed incomes will feel the same as I do - we are being priced out of the rail system.'

Judith Pope, a 51-year-old from Winchester, is not happy about the double-digit increase imposed by South West Trains on her fares into London. 'It's the fact that they have put the fares up at all I object to,' she says. 'They've done it because there's no competition.'

Tickets for the 8.55 Winchester-London service recently rose from £23.20 to £27.40, an 18 per cent increase. SWT has introduced 'super off peak' day returns at £23.90, but only from 10.54, curtailing days out.

'The affordable turn-up-and-go railway has been further eroded,' reckons Anthony Smith, chief executive of Passenger Focus. The group last month complained to the Office of Rail Regulation over SWT's 'abuse of a monopoly position'. The watchdog disagreed.