The government is to be urged to bring down the cost of travel on the county’s high speed trains when it decides who should run the Kent network from 2018.

Fares on the HS1 routes in the county are among the highest in the country, with season ticket prices from Dover to London increasing this year by £1,672, from £4,648 to £6,320.

The franchise holder is currently permitted to charge an added premium for high speed of 30%.

Stephen Gasche, of KCC, told a recent summit meeting on rail services that the 30% premium on high speed prices was “extraordinarily high” and the authority was going to ask the Department for Transport to consider lowering it.

He said: “We are going to ask the DfT to review it. If someone travels from Dover to London, for example, they will pay the ordinary fare to Ashford, and included in their fare is a premium from Ashford to London. It is a very high premium that we want the DfT to look at.”

He said there would be extraordinary growth in housing and employment in Kent and Medway between now and 2031.

“We have pressure now on the network and we have got to be able to plan and manage that demand.”

Mr Nadeem Aziz, the chief executive of Dover district council, said he was concerned that given the predictions for growth in housing in the county, more passengers using high speed trains would “take a hit” in terms of their fares.

“I worry that with the amount of additional services that will be needed, more passengers will take a hit," he said.

"It is only really a fast service from Ashford. The journey time is crucially important to inward investment and growth. We want to see one train per hour that hits that one hour journey time to London.”