Dutch railway company NS is planning to put ticket prices up 3.4% next year, news agency ANP said on Friday.

Part of the rise is compensation for inflation, and part is due to higher government charges which are due to come into effect in 2015, ANP said. NS is 100% state-owned.

A further percentage is compensation for regional rail firms which over-estimated their income from the public transport smart card when people use more than one rail firm.

Passenger lobby group Beter OV said it is wrong to make users pay for a government charge that has not yet been introduced and which is too high. In addition, passengers should not have to compensate rail firms for solving the double tariff problem, the lobby group said.