A leading West Midlands Mayor candidate has pledged a fairer deal for commuters after a major price hike.

The pledge came as the rail industry announced that commuters faced an average price hike of 2.3 per cent from January 2 – despite major problems with delays, over crowded carriages and obscure pricing policies.

From next October the new West Midlands Rail Franchise will take over the majority of local rail services, including the Cross City Line, under the supervision of the Mayor and wider West Midlands councils - giving them a say on fares.

Labour mayoral candidate Sion Simon said: “For far too long, decisions about our transport system in the West Midlands have been made by politicians in London. Their interests are not ours. From next year, we can take back control of our transport system with the election of a West Midlands Mayor.

“It means we can do something about the road congestion and the ever-increasing costs to rail commuters - because we’ll have the powers and funding to decide for ourselves.”

Sion Simon

Two transport companies, Govia and Abellio, are bidding for the West Midlands Rail Franchise and have been asked to deliver more frequent services, longer trains with more passenger capacity, smart tickets, station upgrades and free wifi for all passengers.

But long before any of those improvements take effect commuters will see the cost of travel rise prompting warnings from lobby groups.

Lianna Etkind of the Campaign for Better Transport warned that some passengers are “finding themselves priced off the railways”.

She said: “Between 1995 and 2016 passengers have seen average fares increase by 23.5 per cent and much more needs to be done by train operators and the Government to give them a truly affordable railway.”

Ms Etkind accused the Government of “dragging its feet” over the introduction of flexible season tickets with “fair discounts” for the eight million part-time workers across the UK.

Paul Plummer, chief executive of the Rail Delivery Group which represents train operators and Network Rail, said: “We understand how passengers feel when fares go up, and we know that in some places they haven’t always got the service they pay for.

“Around 97p in every pound passengers pay goes back into running and improving services. Fares are influenced by government policy, either through government-regulated fares such as season tickets or as a result of the payments train companies make to government.

“This money helps government to support the biggest investment in our railway since Victorian times.”