TRAIN fare hikes could turn commuters back to their cars, a rail campaign group has warned.

The Department for Transport has announced that rail fares will increase next January by an average of 8%.

But the Huddersfield-Penistone-Sheffield Rail Users’ Association (HPSRUA) has attacked the planned above inflation rise as “one increase too far”.

The group had previously backed fare rises as necessary for investment to the network.

But after several consecutive years of above inflation increases, it has hit out at another planned rise for Huddersfield passengers.

HPSRUA chairman, Peter Marshall, said West Yorkshire passengers were being hit twice as local rail chiefs imposed above-inflation hikes to pay for extra carriages in 2006.

He said: “We have backed them in the past, but this year it’s just gone too far.

“The additional increase of 2% for West Yorkshire fares on top of the Government’s proposed 8% will not bring any benefit to passengers on our line.

“I think it’s inevitable people will consider it’s too much to pay for what is essentially the same service they’ve been getting for years, and thus, they will go back to their cars.

“The Department for Transport ignored the rising demand for rail travel in the north when the franchises were issued and now they have the cheek to say we must pay more for the same overcrowded and date-expired trains. “The additional carriages announced recently for Northern Rail are now 20 years old, and some of them are the Pacer trains we got rid of 10 years ago coming back to haunt us!

“Our route has once again become the Cinderella Line of the north.”