Rail fares for Sussex commuters will be cut next year because of the poor performance of train companies, it was announced today.

Passengers using South East or London services, included those run by Govia and Thameslink, will pay an average of 1.4 per cent less for season tickets from January.

The announcement by the Strategic Rail Authority coincides with the publication of new figures showing that Connex South Central's punctuality record declined between April 29 and July 21 2001.

Connex South Central was the main franchise holder until two weeks ago when it was passed to Govia, which wants to be known as South Central.

Thameslink, which runs daily services between Brighton and Bedford, had the worst punctuality record in the South East for the three month period.

Thameslink and Govia have the same parent company, Go-Ahead, but run separate services.

However the SRA-regulated pricing regime allows train companies flexibility to change fares so the overall average is in line with the stipulated figure of 1.4 per cent.

This means that not all fares in Sussex will fall and some could actually go up.

A spokesman for Govia (South Central), which took over the Connex franchise at the end of last month, said it was too early to talk about how individual fares would be affected.

He said: "Before our takeover of the franchise we were aware of the SRA plans to make reductions to fares on our network. This was due to the past performance of the former franchise holder.

"Over the next year the most important focus will be to make marked improvements in the performance of all our services."

Shelley Atlas, chairman of the Brighton Line Commuters Group, said: "I think cutting the price of season tickets is a good thing, as long as it applies to all season tickets, not just yearly ones.

"That is definitely something which has happened in the past and only some people got a reduction.

"All season ticket holders should benefit whether they get weekly, monthly or yearly tickets. After all, they have all suffered because of the problems with the services over the last year."

In May, 84 per cent of all Connex South Central trains ran within five minutes of their scheduled time, this figure dropped to 82.6 per cent in June and then to 79.4 per cent in July.

Despite the decline, Connex South Central was the fourth best performer over the three-month period out of the ten London and South East operators.

Thameslink figures for the period show that in May only 76.3 per cent of its trains were running to within five minutes of their scheduled times.

This dropped to 71.7 per cent in June but recovered slightly in July to 73.8 per cent.

Mrs Atlas said: "I am not surprised by these punctuality figures. We are hopeful that Govia will improve things but the situation they have inherited is pretty ghastly."

The companies involved in the 1.4 per cent reduction are c2c (London to Southend), Chiltern, First Great Eastern, Connex South Eastern, Govia (South Central), South West Trains, Thames Trains, Thameslink and West Anglia Great Northern.

Nationally, the regulated fares operated by long distance and regional train companies will be held to a rate of inflation minus 1.6 per cent.

Using the July 2001 inflation figure, this means these fares will rise by an average of 0.6 per cent from January 2002