Ministers ready to 'review' next year's train fare rises However Ms Greening won a major concession from the Treasury and the increase was scaled back to one per cent above inflation rather than three per cent as originally planned. This meant that the cost of commuting, which is capped by the Government, rose by an average of six per cent, rather than eight per cent. However with commuters on some routes facing rises approaching 10 per cent, there has been mounting anger from passengers, despite the concession. Some are planning to block the Treasury's switchboard in protest, while others are threatening to use Twitter to deluge George Osborne, the Chancellor, with tweets. As the next election approaches pressure is likely to increase for more Treasury support to water down the following two years" fare rises. With the commuter belt housing many marginal constituencies, the issue of season ticket fare rises is likely to become politically sensitive. Ms Greening has sought to win commuters" backing with a series of announcements including extra carriages for people travelling into London from the Sussex coast and returning one of Eurostar's Waterloo platforms to domestic use. Nevertheless the cost of rail travel is also a difficult one for the Coalition with the Liberal Democrats having fought the election on a pledge to make it cheaper to use the trains. There is also understood to be some unease among Tory MPs at the political damage high fare rises could do in the run up to the next election. In the long term the Government says its plans improve the efficiency of the rail industry could make annual fare rises a thing of the past. But this will depend on implementing recommendations made by Sir Roy McNulty, who told the Government that there was scope to cut 30 per cent from rail's running costs. The prospect of a rethink was welcomed by Stephen Joseph, chief executive of the Campaign for Better Transport. "Any suggestion that the Government may retreat on the eye-watering rail fares rises planned for future years will be welcomed by hard-pressed commuters, who are making their anger known today at this year's rise by blitzing the Treasury with phone calls, tweets and texts," he said. A retreat would also make good political sense: we've calculated that up to 50 marginal constituencies have high proportions of rail commuters and could be at risk at the next election.