THE Alton Line Users’ Association has voiced furious concern over what members describe as “massive fare increases” introduced this year by South West Trains and which, they say, are impacting greatly on weekend travel.

In finding the hike in fares “unacceptable”, the passenger watchdog is asking for the new fares and travel restrictions be removed.

In a letter to the Alton Herald this week, line users’ secretary John Eddleston pointed out that on some routes the weekend fare increases amount to almost 30 per cent.

Mr Eddleston wrote: “Rail travellers strongly object to the new Saturday and Sunday cheap fare restrictions and believe that it is not acceptable that what South West Trains calls ‘super off-peak tickets’ now have restricted travel times during the so-called ‘peak periods’ on weekends and bank holidays.

“Moreover, these restrictions are in different time periods from the weekday tickets and are very confusing to passengers (and South West Trains staff) and add unnecessary complications and delays at ticket offices at a time when fare structures are supposed to be simplified.”

He continued: “South West Trains made no prior announcement of these increases by marketing spin, the South West Trains website refers to a cut of 15 per cent (only when compared to the new higher off-peak fares at weekends). In fact there is a massive increase in fares.

“Weekend rail travellers believe that these new fares and travel restrictions should be removed.”

According to Alton Line Users’ Association, passengers have also expressed concern regarding the poor Sunday services on the Alton line.

“Services start much later than on most other routes and are often reduced to hourly or less even when there is engineering elsewhere.”

By way of explanation and in response to these concerns, South West Trains pointed out that it “significantly increased the number of seats and capacity on its weekend services in December 2015, which had a positive effect” but even with the extra capacity the rail company was still, it says, seeing “very busy services at some points of the day”.

As a result, it has imposed a time restriction on its cheapest weekend fares for travel from short and medium distance stations during the busiest hours of the day on Saturdays and Sundays to encourage travel during quieter periods.

In terms of the other changes, South West Trains points out that it has expanded the availability of the super off-peak ticket to more destinations across the network, to enable more passengers to benefit from cheaper fares at weekends, including cheaper travel to destinations outside of London and across the South West.

A South West Trains spokesman said: “The new prices reflect whether travel is at a busier or quieter time of day. This is the same approach that is used by other transport providers such as airlines.

“Across all tickets on the South West Trains network the average fare increase this January was just 1.5per cent, which is significantly lower than the July inflation figure of 1.9 per cent which is used by the Government to set all regulated fares, and was also below the average national increase.

“Passengers who travel at the weekend now have a wider choice as we have made more cheaper tickets available for travel on Saturdays and Sundays.

“The changes also mean cheaper travel to destinations outside of London and across the South West Trains network.

“For the very small number of passengers who want flexibility to travel at any time of the day at weekends, we will continue to offer discounted off-peak tickets.”