COMMUTERS whose railway station has been dogged by building delays are set to see their fares rise by more than 10 per cent.

Travellers who use Greenhithe station will be hit with one of the biggest ticket price hikes in Kent when the cost of a weekly season ticket to London rises from £42 to £46.50 in January.

The increase - 10.7 per cent - will add an extra £50 to commuters’ annual rail fees, is double the official five per cent rate of inflation, and is well ahead of rail operator Southeastern’s eight per cent average.

And the hikes will leave an extra bitter taste in the mouths of some, who have seen building works to their new station fall six months behind schedule.

Greenhithe’s new £3.35 million station, the first in the UK to be built off-site, was due for completion in May, but more than half a year on, technical glitches are still delaying its official commissioning.

Network Rail, which is responsible for the building works and has part funded the new station, said it had set a revised completion date of early November, but was still having problems.

Commuters in Strood risk their finances going off the rails when their bills soar by almost 20 per cent.

A week’s season ticket there will go up from £64 to £75.50 on January 2, an extra 18 per cent and £138 per year.

Fares for commuters in Dartford will rise by Southeastern’s eight per cent average when the price of a weekly ticket to London leaps from £42 to £42.50.

At Gravesend station the increase is slightly higher. Fares there will rise from £56 to £61 - about nine per cent.

Southeastern’s standard returns will also increase by an average of eight per cent, while fares for cheap day returns will rise by six per cent.

A spokesman said: “We recognise no one likes having to pay more, and fare increases are inevitably unpopular. But Government policy is to recoup more of the cost of rail travel from those who use it, rather than relying on the taxpayer to subsidise it.”

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