Protests have been organised around the county this morning in opposition to the New Year rail fare hike.

Commuters on Southeastern and Southern will be paying on average 3.1% more to travel from today, a rise described as "beyond comprehension" by rail workers union the RMT.

Faversham, Chatham and Ramsgate are among the stations expected to have campaigners outside this morning.

General secretary of the RMT, Mick Cash, said: "A quarter of a century of rail privatisation has seen rail fares rise significantly faster than inflation, which instead of improving British rail has been used to boost the coffers of foreign rail.

"Last year alone foreign rail firms made over a £100 million in profits on the backs of rail passengers in the UK.

"It is beyond comprehension that after a year of rail meltdown and passenger misery Chris Grayling has once again not lifted a finger to take action to curb fare rises and provide some relief to passengers.

"When a general election eventually does happen ministers will pay the price for this neglect at the ballot box.

"The government may not care about passengers, but rail workers do, and we will be out around the country today stepping up the campaign for public ownership."

For every £1 spent on rail fares, 98p goes back into the railway.

Paul Plummer, chief executive of the Rail Delivery Group, which brings together train companies and Network Rail, said: "Nobody wants to pay more to travel, especially those who experienced significant disruption earlier this year.

"We understand that no one likes to see prices go up, especially our season ticket holders..." - Southeastern

"Money from fares is underpinning the improvements to the railway that passengers want and which ultimately help boost the wider economy. That means more seats, extra services and better connections right across the country."

A Southeastern spokesman said: “We understand that no one likes to see prices go up, especially our season ticket holders.

"We keep fare increases to a minimum and have frozen unregulated Advance fares at January 2018 prices – these can now be purchased at ticket offices, making our cheapest fares more widely available.

“The government regulates annual fare increases, primarily Season tickets, to meet the costs of running and upkeep of Britain’s railways.

"Just two pence of every pound from train fares is profit – the rest goes back into the rail industry for running, maintaining and improving the network. For unregulated fares – including off-peak travel – we offer discounted ticket prices, special offers and promotional fares.

“We are committed to making journeys better for passengers and have invested over £78m in improving train services and station facilities over the past three years, refurbishing a third of our train fleet and providing better quality information to help people with their journeys.

"We are also part way through a deep clean of our train fleet.

“In addition, we have taken on 300 extra frontline staff to assist passengers, invested £5m in repainting and revamped all 165 of the stations we manage.”