A CHIPPENHAM family has slammed the cost of rail fares after finding they will have to pay three times as much as the bus fare for tickets to and from a train festival in Chesterfield.

Catherine Thatcher, of Ashfield Road, said her family has been forced to cough up more than £195 for three adult tickets, even when using the discount on two senior citizen and one disabled person's railcards, so they can spend a full day at the Barrow Hill Roundhouse Grand Reopening Gala next month.

The family were horrified to discover that the National Express bus, which would have only cost them £60, left three hours too early for her, her husband Michael and her disabled son Robert, who has learning difficulties and epilepsy, to enjoy the full day of steam train festivities.

"I went to the Town Hall in Chippenham to buy tickets from National Express and the price for two senior tickets and one disabled was only £60, something which I thought was great," the 70-year-old said.

"We wanted to come back on Saturday, September 23, but the last bus is at 3.15pm which is too early.

"We had no choice but to go to the railway station and buy tickets there, but I just couldn't believe the price – for the same tickets we had to pay an extra £120 which is awful.

"I dread to think what tickets will cost in five years' time. We use the train an awful lot and there are times we have to stand all the way from Bath to Chippenham. As we are getting older, it's just not fair to expect us to stand all that way."

Mrs Thatcher's complaints come in the same week that it was announced that train fares would rise by an eyewatering 3.6 per cent next year, as determined by the Retail Price Index, which will add hundreds of pounds to the cost of season tickets.

A spokesman for CrossCountry Trains said: “We are sorry if Mrs Thatcher feels the price of their journey was expensive. People choose their mode of travel for many reasons, of which price is only one factor. For example, if speed was more important, then rail travel takes half the time for the journey in question.

"Looking at the prices they have been quoted it would appear they have been offered fully flexible tickets, whereas if they had checked earlier and booked with CrossCountry there are advance tickets for that journey that could cost the group considerably less.”