LONDON, Jan. 2 (Xinhua) -- British rail fares rose around 3.1 percent from Wednesday, according to a latest announcement issued by Transport for London.

"Many fares are frozen until 2020, although on 2 January 2019 some fares changed. On average, Travelcards and caps increased by 3.1 percent," it said.

The Rail Delivery Group's official twitter account said: "For every 1 pound paid in fares, 98 penny goes towards running and maintaining the railway."

It added that "this means public and private capital can be invested in improvements, such as the 7,000 new carriages and hundreds more trains refurbished like new, coming in by 2021."

Meanwhile, the hike of rail fares and failure of punctuality have triggered several protests from the public and railway campaigners.

Local media Mirror said: "Punctuality plunged to a 13-year low in 2018 after 12 months of delays; cancellations and overcrowding on many lines."

"Yet thanks to today's hike, commuters will be paying nearly 3,000 pounds a year more to travel to work than in 2010," it added.

Darren Shirley, CEO of the Campaign for Better Transport, said: "Rail passengers have endured enough this year, with botched timetable changes and delays to their journeys which led to the worst punctuality figures for 12 years."

Calling for "affordable" rail travel, Shirley said: "The government should introduce a fares freeze from January. Any future fare increases should be based on the consumer price index rather than an outdated and discredited measure of inflation."