RAIL commuters have little option but to cough up for the whopping rise in their tickets next year, but they do have one crucial right.

First Great Western is now duty-bound to start producing better conditions if it is to plunder the pockets of Oxfordshire travellers.

Last week we reported all 10 of the most overcrowded trains in and out of London were First Great Western ones. And four of them started or terminated in Oxford.

For the next three years the Government has ramped up the ticket formula to the retail price index plus three per cent — with the aim that the extra money goes into improving the railways.

Commuters have every right to demand a return for the increase.

It is simply intolerable to charge someone an estimated £4,432 a year and deliver a service where there is a good chance they will be standing throughout their journey into the capital. There must be improvements before December 31, 2012.