Commuters from one station in north Kent are paying more than £500 more than commuters using a station just three minutes down the line.

Train users from Swanscombe station pay £2,992 for a season ticket to London, however season ticket holders in Greenhithe– just 1.5 miles away – are paying £2,440.

Claire Pearce, who is standing for the Swanscombe and Greenhithe division in next week’s county election, said the price difference is unfair.

She said: “Rail passengers in Swanscombe are getting a bad deal.

“It cannot be fair that people using Swanscombe station pay significantly more in fares than those using Greenhithe station – even though its only three minutes further down the line.

“An annual season ticket to London costs £502 more from Swanscombe that it does from Greenhithe. That's £184 a minute.”

It is not just Swanscombe and Greenhithe that have a significant price difference.

A season ticket from Dartford station to London costs £2,400 in comparison to a season ticket from Crayford which is priced at £1,948.

Crayford is 5 minutes down the line but vitally it is the first town in the London Borough of Bexley, not Kent. 

A Southeastern spokesman said: “Just as with other train operating companies, fares across our network are calculated using a number of factors. This means the price of a train ticket can vary from one station to another.

“In the case of Season Tickets, prices are regulated by the government and linked to the Retail Price Index.

“Today, passengers commuting into London from Swanscombe pay around 30p per mile. However, Greenhithe is an example of a station on our network where passengers still benefit from a lower-than-average increase under previous Department for Transport regulation. 

“We continue to keep any fare increases to a minimum across our network and indeed have frozen a number of ticket prices for the past three years, including Advance fares which remain at January 2016 prices.”