- Despite a £9bn investment programme, designed to double the number of places on trains in 2006, failure to deliver extra seats will mean efforts to keep overcrowding at current levels will fall short
- By 2014, a 15% shortfall in additional places on London peak services means more people will have to stand
- A third fewer places than needed
- Taxpayers will have to step in to meet the shortfall because train operators were not obliged to
- Commuters were faced to pay for new services that did not even stop at their stations
- South-east passenger have been hit with above-average fare rises to pay for 140 mph high speed Javelin trains many could not use
- Rail passengers are getting a slower service than 70 years ago
- Decades of innovation has brought little benefit to passengers
- A trip from Surbiton to Waterloo took 17 minutes before WWII, now the journey takes two minutes longer
- London to East Croydon takes 16 minutes, compared to 15 in 19
BBC News
A Department for Transport study has revealed some of the most congested trains in England are running at almost double capacity.
The government has called on train operators to do more to address overcrowding on rush-hour services.
In Autumn 2011, First Great Western's 07:44 Henley-on-Thames to London Paddington service had a 180% load factor in standard class carriages.
Michael Roberts, chief executive of The Association of Operating Companies (ATOC), said overcrowding was the "flip side" to faster trains and better services. In a statement he said train companies understood passengers' frustration and were "taking action where they can".
Watchdog spokesman Mike Hewitson said: "Passengers tell us that getting a seat is a daily struggle.
"We need substantial long-term investment to provide longer and more frequent trains to help reduce crowding.
"The industry needs to increase capacity by offering more trains and more carriages - not by increasing fares to price off demand."
From 2 January, season ticket holders in Henley-on-Thames will also see their annual fare to London rise by 4.18% to £3,388.
First Great Western has recently added an extra carriage to the 07:44 service, increasing the number of standard class seats to 340.
Dan Panes, from the operator, said: "Over the last three years we have managed to deliver 90 more carriages across our network, pulling in an additional 10% capacity.
London Midland, which features in the top 10 list four times, has placed an order for 10 new four-car trains which will allow for additional services to operate on the route from 2014.
Rail fares will rise by 6.2% in January
BBC News
The Retail Prices Index (RPI) in July - which stood at 3.2%.
Some rail fares in England will rise by 6.2% in January - about double the rate of inflation - although other price rises may be higher.
Some English fares will rise by RPI plus 3%, while in Scotland they will go up by RPI plus 1%. Wales has yet to set a figure for its increase.
The extra money is helping to fund huge investment across the network.
There are no fare increases currently planned in Northern Ireland, where fares are not linked to RPI, after a 3% rise in April.
The decision to have different formulas for fare rises is a political one. In Scotland, 75% of the cost of the railways comes from a government subsidy - higher than in England.
The figures for planned rises in England and Scotland are an average across regulated tickets, which make up half of all fares.
Some passengers could see their journey prices rising by more than the average, as train companies are allowed to increase them by up to five percentage points more, as long as they cut ticket prices elsewhere.
Passengers will not be told yet how prices will change on their specific route.
Those who travel across a border, such as from Scotland to England, will be subject to the higher English fare rises.
Mike Hewitson, of watchdog Passenger Focus, said: "This is another inflation-busting increase.
"There is only so much you can squeeze passengers. The government needs to think again about the plus 3% [formula]."
BBC transport correspondent Richard Westcott says passengers and taxpayers used to split the cost of running the railways, with both sides paying about half each, but successive ministers have cut the amount of government funding and that has resulted in regular fare rises.
The latest rise means fares in England will have gone up by more than inflation for 10 successive years, resulting in some of the most expensive train journeys in Europe although some tickets booked well in advance can be cheap, our correspondent adds.
'You have to stand'
Passengers have reacted with disappointment.
One disgruntled passenger told the BBC: "I don't think it's good value for money at all. Every train I get in the morning, you either have to stand up or you can't get in."
Stephen Joseph, from passengers' group the Campaign for Better Transport, said rail fares could rise three times faster than salaries if the government sticks to its policy.
"With the economy flatlining, this is untenable. The government knows they can't continue to hit commuters - that's why they've postponed the fuel duty increase," he said, as activists from the group protested against the anticipated increases at London's Waterloo station.
The group said commuters across the country routinely spend between 5% and 10% of their salary getting to work. In some towns in south-east England, it said they spent up to 15%.
But Michael Roberts, chief executive of the Association of Train Operating Companies, said: "It has been government policy during the past eight years for passengers to pay a larger share of the cost of operating the railways and to focus taxpayers' money on investing in longer-term improvements to the network.
"In return for these whopping fare increases, rail travellers can expect cutbacks to services and more unmanned stations, creating safety risks for those travelling at unsociable hours."
Transport Secretary Theresa Villiers said that the fare increases were necessary in the short-term to achieve the government's long-term goal of bringing down the cost of running railways.
"In the longer term we are determined to get rid of these above-inflation fare rises all together," she said.
"But in the meantime I'm afraid these fare rises are going to be necessary in order to help us deliver a rail investment programme at a time when the deficit means public spending needs to be constrained," she added.
The official inflation figures from the Official for National Statistics show that the Consumer Prices Index measure of inflation rose from 2.4% in June to 2.6% in July. The rise in the rate of CPI follows three months of falls. RPI rose to 3.2% from 2.8% in June.
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