By Ilaria Grasso Macola The union TSSA has called for a new financial settlement for rail as worries of hiking annual fares mount. TSSA’s general secretary Manuel Cortes said commuters have been “clobbered by above inflation fare rises,” while private rail operators “laughed all the way to the bank.” “We need our railways to be fully in public hands and working for all of us as they do elsewhere in Europe,” he explained. Fares could go as high as 12 per cent from next year as the July retail price index (RPI) is normally used to calculate the increase in rail fares for the coming year. The RPI…