Actress Jenny Agutter, the star of the movie The Railway Children, handed in a 10,000-signature petition to Downing Street calling for fairer rail fares

Actress Jenny Agutter has gone from being a railway child to a railway campaigner.

It is more than 40 years since the actress famously waved her red bloomers on screen to stop a rail disaster in the hit 1970 film The Railway Children.

She is now waving a petition on behalf of not-for-profit group Campaign for Better Transport, calling on the government to scrap the planned above-inflation rail fare increases.

Ms Agutter handed a petition with more than 11,000 signatures against the increases to 10 Downing Street.

This came less than two months before an average fare rise of eight per cent will be introduced under a new, higher annual price-rise formula.

“I hope the government listens and takes steps to make trains more affordable and reliable - starting by cancelling the planned fare rises,” Ms Agutter said.

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