Train Fare Rise for 2014 Cut

An email arrives from Southeastern following the Autumn Statement:

"As you may be aware, the Chancellor announced today that Government will cap the increase in regulated fares (season tickets and peak returns and singles) to the Retail Price Index (RPI).

"The July RPI is used for setting next year's fares, so therefore the average fare increase across the Southeastern network from January 2014 will be 3.1%

"Southeastern welcomes the Government's change in fares formula which is obviously good news for passengers.

"The fares team here at Southeastern will need to get to work to reset the 250,000+ fares in our system. We'll do our best to get this information out to passengers and stakeholders as quickly as we can."

Clearly, a lower increase in train fares is a good thing (although a 3.1% increase is still too high in my opinion). But it certainly sounds like someone at Southeastern has got a fun few weeks ahead of them. Wrong type of fare rise on the line?