SOME First Great Western passengers could face fare rises of up to 11 per cent from next month.

The Swindon-based train company, which operates services from London via Swindon to South Wales and the south west, is about to change its system of fares.

Some first class season tickets on First Great Western routes could go up from between 5.9 per cent and 11 per cent from June 11, while there will increases on some standard class seasons.

Some cheap day and saver fares could rise by 3.5 per cent but other cheap day and saver fares will be reduced.

SuperSaver, Advance, SuperAdvance, Apex and First Apex tickets are being withdrawn, with leisure and business class tickets being brought in.

A First Great Western spokeswoman said: "Some fares are going up, some are going down and some remain unchanged. We expect the changes will encourage more people to travel with us, especially off-peak, and so our revenue will increase.

"This will allow us to invest £200m in our trains, stations and customer service and return more than £1bn to the Government for reinvestment in the rail industry."

She continued: "We are streamlining our fares structure to provide our customers with a simplified range of tickets and we will be announcing this within the next week or so."

Mike Greedy, the south west spokesman for Passenger Focus, a passenger lobby group, said: "It's a new system of fares. We're waiting until we see the details, but we believe there's potential for fares to come down for when tickets are booked in advance, particularly for off-peak tickets."