Urgent warning to EVERY Brit with a railcard as cost hiked by £5 in Budget – exactly when the new cost will hit

TRANSPORT bosses have issued an urgent warning to every Brit with a railcard – after their cost was hiked by £5 in the Budget.

Some rail fares will also go up by 4.6% under plans drawn up by the Treasury.

They include season tickets on most commuter routes, off-peak return tickets for long journeys and flexible tickets in big cities.

The “trick and treat” Halloween package included:

• A freeze to fuel duty for a 15th consecutive year in a win for The Sun’s Keep It Down campaign
•  A penny off a pint by cutting draught beer duty, but raising booze taxes on other drinks
•  A gloomy forecast of sluggish growth in a blow to Labour’s flagship mission
•  A stamp duty rise for second-home buyers of two percentage points
•  A pay rise for millions as the minimum wage was increased by £1,400 a year
•  A hike to a packet of cigarettes as smoking duties were raised
•  A new tax on vapes ahead of the looming ban on disposable e-cigs
•  Higher taxes on air passenger duty for private jets that hits the wealthy
•  A benefits crackdown with Ms Reeves telling jobless Brits to “get back to work”
•  An increase to the state pension of £473 next year through the triple lock
•  An inheritance tax raid through freezing the rates people pay
•  An increase to the Carer’s Allowance to give cash to 60,000 more carers

The changes are set to hit English commuters’ pockets on March 2 next year.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves did not mention the hikes in her Budget speech yesterday.

They were instead noted in the small print of the Treasury’s official Budget document.

The Treasury said the fare increase was just one percentage point above inflation.

A spokesperson for the department said: “It’s the lowest absolute increase in three years.”

The £5 railcard hike will be subject to an industry review, according to the document.

Most railcards cost £30 a year and save commuters an average of £158 annually.

Brits who have a Disabled Persons Railcard will not be affected by the hike.

The Campaign for Better Transport said: “Doing this at the same time as keeping fuel duty frozen sends entirely the wrong message.

“To tackle air pollution, congestion and climate change, we need to make public transport the attractive, affordable choice.”

Industry group Rail Partners said: “Fares should be set at a level that will ultimately encourage more people to travel by train in the future.

“The focus must be on growing passenger numbers, not making current passengers pay more.”

Following the increase, a yearly ticket from Rugby to London will rise by £496.62 to £11,292.62.

And the commute from Milton Keynes to London will leap by £357.33 to £8,125.33.

About 45% of fares on Britain’s railways are regulated by the Westminster, Scottish and Welsh Governments.

They include season tickets on most commuter journeys, some off-peak return tickets on long-distance routes, and flexible tickets for travel around major cities.

Train operators set rises in unregulated fares, although these are likely to be very close to changes in regulated ticket prices.

This is because the companies’ decisions are heavily influenced by governments due to contracts introduced because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Rail fares already went up by 4.9% in March this year.

This saw the annual cost of a weekly commute from Oxford to London rise from £6,096 to £6,394.

Why are rail fares going up?

Rail fares are regulated by the government.

Typically, each year the government uses the July Retail Price Index (RPI) measure of inflation to work out how much ticket prices will go up.

The increase is capped at RPI, which was 3.6% in July this year, plus 1%.

Last year, the government stepped in to cap this year’s rise at 4.9%.

At the time, inflation was soaring and fares could have increased at a rate of 9%.

The Department for Transport also capped fares for 2022 and 2023.

Historically, price rises have taken effect in January, but it changed to March during the pandemic.

Not all fares will increase and the price changes will vary across regions and rail operators.