Rail commuters will be hit by a 3.6 per cent rise in the cost of season tickets from next year.

The rise - based on the Retail Price Index measure of inflation - will affect all season tickets and some 'anytime' and off-peak tickets.

The Office for National Statistics announced the rise, which is the highest increase in fares since 2012.

ONS also warned that the RPI is 'flawed' and was concerned at it being used to calculate rail fares.

Rail unions said that, even as fares rise, rail engineering work is being delayed or cancelled, skilled jobs are being lost and staff are being cut on trains, stations and ticket offices. 

Transport Salaried Staffs Association leader Manuel Cortes said: "Dick Turpin had the decency to wear a mask when he robbed his passengers. Today train companies, with the Government's blessing, hide behind the Retail Price Index as a method of legitimately fleecing more money from hard-pressed passengers at the start of each new year."

Mick Whelan, general secretary of train drivers' union Aslef, said: "After years of austerity, when workers have not achieved pay increases for years at or around inflation, it is unfair that the industry they subsidise creates transport poverty and hurts the communities and industries that they should be supporting."