THE cost of some off-peak train tickets from York to Leeds has risen for the second time in less than six months.

TransPennine Express (TPE) has confirmed that it increased the price of its Off Peak Day Return ticket from £13.80 to £14.60 in January, and then hiked it again to £15.30 earlier this month.

A York passenger who regularly takes the train to get to work at the University of Leeds has blasted the ‘surprising and disappointing’ rise, which she claimed had been ‘sneaked through.’

Lecturer Dr Lata Narayanaswamy said she was astonished when asked to pay the higher amount last week.”It is clear that this has been a silent increase,” she claimed. “I spoke to two TPE train guards who said that they didn’t know about it – both of them quoted the £14.60 price to me when I asked.”

She said the hand-held unit of the TPE train manager also showed the lower price and staff at York railway station also said they hadn’t known about it in advance of the rise.

“I also checked to see if this was linked to the timetable changes, but on further investigation I could see a link to new timetables but no information about fare rises to go with the timetable change.”

She said she did not know if there were any rules on whether passengers should be notified of fare rises in advance. “But given that fares went up in the highly publicised new year increase, I am surprised and disappointed to see this fare has risen yet again, and without even the goodwill to tell us the rise is coming, irrespective of what the regulations dictate.”

She added she had written to York’s MPs, Rachael Maskell and Julian Sturdy, to raise her concerns about the rise.

A TPE spokesman said frontline teams were briefed about the changes in April, but the point raised would be followed up and retail team were following up the ticket machine issue.

He said: “The vast amount of money generated by ticket sales is invested back into the rail network. In the next two years, we will deliver £500million of investment across the North, including the introduction of 220 brand new carriages which will provide 13m more seats a year for customers.

“Customers are already travelling on our upgraded, modern trains which have received £32million investment.”