Rail fares in Sussex will rise by up to nine per cent on some lines in the New Year, it was announced today.

Passengers on the lines through Kent into East Sussex and Hastings - now being temporarily run by the Strategic Rail Authority after Connex lost its franchise - face the brunt of the increases.

Fares on the main line from Hastings into Charing Cross will go up by nine per cent.

Elsewhere fares on the Brighton Line, along the Sussex Coast and through West Sussex to Chichester will increase by just over four per cent.

Shelley Atlas, chair of passengers' group Brighton Line Commuters, said: "We all realised fares would have to go up, but we want to see an improvement in the services especially with regard to timekeeping."

The increase of four per cent will see the price of an annual season ticket from Brighton to London rise from £2,720 to nearer the £3,000 mark.

It means people will have to earn at least an extra £8,000 a year to make it worthwhile giving up a job in Brighton to work in London and commute.

The cost of a day return to London during the early morning rush hour on trains run by South Central into London will rise to nearly £30 with the cheapest off peak ticket without a discount railcard rising to over £13.

Details of the exact fares will be announced in the coming weeks.

On some of the cross country services run by Virgin, which has Brighton as the southern hub of the network, there will be rises of six per cent.

The Association of Train Operating Companies defended the rise. It said that between 1995 and 2003 standard class fares had risen in real terms by just 0.6 per cent, and taking into account inflation during that time there had been a decrease in some fares.

ATOC director general George Muir said: "This is the first real terms rise in fares for seven years."

Tuesday December 09, 2003