Transport union RMT today demanded an end to what it described as “blatant rail racketeering” as statistics released this week by the Office of Rail Regulation show that walk-on passengers, who buy their tickets on the day of travel, have seen prices rise by 23.1 per cent in real terms over the past nine years.

Nothing highlights the growing rail fares scandal more than the fact a walk-on return fare from London to Newcastle costs £301, more than a round trip flight to New York. Skyscanner are advertising return trips to the States for £298 today.

The statistics have been buried away in an ORR statistical bulletin, posted on line this week with no fanfare. The figures will come as yet another massive embarrassment to the government and their backers amongst the private rail operators as it emerged this week that thousands of passengers have been forced to pay through the nose to stand up on sweltering, over-crowded trains throughout the recent hot weather.

Bob Crow, RMT general secretary, said today:

“These latest figures, showing that fares have risen by up to a quarter in real terms during a period when austerity has held wages down, will confirm what passengers already know. The British are being squeezed dry, paying the highest fares in Europe to travel on unreliable, overcrowded trains while the profits and bonuses in the rail company boardrooms bleed hard cash out of the network.”

“The Government are up to their eyeballs in this rail fares racket while the passengers take a hammering through a poisonous combination of political ideology and boardroom greed. Public ownership of our railways is the only way to end this scandal.”