by Lauren Hood

lhood@thekmgroup.co.uk

Kent's long-suffering rail passengers will escape the worst of predicted train fare hikes, it was revealed today.

Fears over huge increases were fuelled after Transport Secretary Philip Hammond reportedly refused to rule out higher-than-usual price increases.

But according to a National Passenger Watchdog, Kent shouldn't get hit as hard as other parts of the UK.

This is due to an existing agreement which means rail fare increases in the county are set at three per cent above inflation.

But with inflation today announced at 4.8 per cent, it still means Kent travellers could face sharp increases of 7.8 per cent.

At this rate season ticket holders going from Canterbury to London would see their £3,840 bill shoot up by £311, pushing the cost of the ticket above £4,000.

Despite this Trunde Olatunji from Passenger Focus said Kent is better off than the rest of the UK, which could see train price hikes of up to 10 per cent.

He said: "Even if further increases are introduced to train companies across the country I certainly would not expect Kent to see any additional increases above the current regime that we have."

But he also added that the Transport Minister still has questions to answer.

"Why do railways cost so much comparative to the rest of Europe?

"And why do we have this regime where we can lazily assume that passengers will be happy to pay not only the rate of inflation but percentage points above that?

"We certainly feel that's not right and we don't see what the justification is for it."

If plans go ahead Rail passengers face the biggest rise in ticket prices since the industry was privatised in the mid 1990s

The Association of Train Operating Companies said any predictions that rail fares would increase were 'just speculation'.

A spokesman said: "The Government is currently reviewing its approach to rail fares and a final decision is unlikely to be made until the spending review in the autumn."