Rail fares bought at the station can be five times more expensive than advance fares.

And that is a big problem when the Government ought to be encouraging people to switch from cars to trains because of the increasing cost of petrol.

Rail campaigners are urging the Government to abandon its policy of making rail travellers pay even more.

“The Government’s solution to high rail fares is to offer advance fares," said public transport campaigner Cat Hobbs.

"But we can’t always predict the future and so need a walk-on railway. 

"At a time when people are facing increases in petrol prices, the Government is planning to make the green alternative, rail, even more expensive.

"The Government needs to invest more in the rail network so that people can just turn up at a station and go.” 
 
The Campaign for Better Transport compared the cost of walk-on and advance rail fares for single journeys between the largest cities in each region in England plus the largest cities in Wales and Scotland.

On average, walk-on fares are 4.7 times the price of advance fares, but researchers found this varied according to where your journey started.

From Newcastle upon Tyne, they were 5.33 times more expensive, from London 5.10, from Cardiff 5.04, from Leeds 5, from Norwich 4.78, from Glasgow 4.77, from Bristol 4.72, from Birmingham 4.49, from Southampton 4.25, from Nottingham 4.07 and from Manchester 4.

Government investment in the railway was £6.3billion in 2006/7 but the 2007 Rail White Paper shows that by 2014, the Government plans to halve its investment to £3billion a year, leaving passengers to pay £9billion.

In 2005/06, passengers paid 49% of the cost of running the railway. By 2014 they will pay 75%.  
 
The majority of people cite high fares as the biggest disincentive to travelling by train. Some travellers comments:

Steve Nodwell told CBT: "I live in London and am originally from Liverpool. Last year I became an uncle and was delighted with the news of my brother’s baby. Of course I and my girlfriend wanted to get up to Liverpool as soon as we could to see the baby and be part of the big family occasion. We were deflated when we saw the price of the tickets.

"Even if we were to have waited two weeks to see the new arrival there were no reasonably priced tickets. We ended up reluctantly hiring a car for half the price of the two return tickets. We are both very aware of the negative effects of personal transport and neither of us owns or usually uses a car; however, when we are priced out of returning home for such important events we have to sacrifice our morals."
 
Matthew Moll said: "I recently travelled to my brother's house in Newcastle from Huddersfield. Although I knew what day I would be travelling in advance, the time of arrival (he was coming back from a conference in London on the same day) was not known until it was too late to buy any cheap advance tickets for the train I would be travelling on. The ticket cost £32.20 with a Young Person's Railcard."
 
Info from the Campaign for Better Transport

www.bettertransport.org.uk