Commuters who were promised that privatisation would mean cheaper journeys will soon be paying more in real terms than they did in the days of British Rail.

Season tickets and saver fares will rise next month by 6 per cent – cancelling out the price cuts of the early years of privatisation.

John Major’s Government promised 12 years ago that fares would fall as a result of privatisation. Geoff Hoon, the Transport Secretary, said last week that regulated fares were no more expensive in real terms than they had been when Labour came to power in 1997. But an analysis by the Liberal Democrats has found that the average regulated fare will cost 0.6 per cent more in real terms than in 1997. On some routes the increase will be more than 6 per cent.

Over the next five years the Government is committed to increases above inflation each year until 2014. It wants passengers to pay 75 per cent of the cost of the railways. At present they pay half and taxpayers the other half.

Brian Mawhinney (now Lord Mawhinney), who was Transport Secretary when the railways were sold off, pledged that private rail companies would offer cheaper tickets and better value for money. He said in 1995 that there would be an “historic divide” between the era of British Rail and the lower fares provided by the private sector.

Regulated fares, which include season tickets and saver tickets, were frozen for the first three years of privatisation and then fell by one percentage point below inflation each year for the next four years. But, since 2004, the Government has been raising fares by one point above inflation each January.

Unregulated fares, which include peak singles and returns and are set by the train companies, will rise by 7 per cent in January. That increase will make them 35 per cent more expensive in real terms than in 1997.

Mr Hoon said that he had urged the main train companies “to bear in mind the difficult economic circumstances when setting their fares”.

A source at the Department for Transport said Mr Hoon was disappointed that most companies had chosen to ignore him. Norman Baker, the Liberal Democrat transport spokesman, said: “It makes a mockery of any claim to a climate change strategy to push up the cost of low-carbon travel.”

Anthony Smith, the chief executive of Passenger Focus, the government-funded watchdog, said: “We have a very, very expensive railway and increasingly the costs are going to be dumped on the passenger. Given that there is a monopoly on most routes, we need to look at how competition law could be used to protect passengers from exploitation.”

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