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Evening Standard comment: An increase in rail fares is a tax on London

Just as public-sector pay is in the news — it is capped at one per cent — it turns out that the cost of rail travel may go up in the New Year by as much as four per cent. The funding formula for fare rises means ticket prices are linked to the RPI inflation index as it stands this month — this may turn out to be between 3.6 and 3.9 per cent. So commuters whose fares are already among the highest in Europe may well find that the increase will be double average pay rises or quadruple those in the public sector. It’s why commuters feel increasingly squeezed, given that so much of their pay is spent on fares.