Rail commuters from Oxford and Didcot to London will save an estimated £89 a year thanks to the government decision to cap fare increases.

In August this year the Department for Transport announced its “inflation-busting” rail fare rises of three per cent above inflation in January 2013 and one per cent above inflation in January 2014. This would have meant a season ticket to the capital would rise £421 in two years, from £4,348 to £4,769 by 2014.

Now, the DfT has said it will cap its above-inflation increase at one per cent for 2013, which will reduce the price of a season ticket in 2014 to £4,680.

The DfT also announced yesterday that from 2015 there would be a cap of RPI plus one per cent.

The figures are based on projections RPI will be 2.3 per cent next year, and 2.6 per cent in 2014. The DfT said the decision to reduce the planned increase was expected to benefit more than a quarter of a million annual season ticket holders across the country.