Rail season tickets could be 10 percent cheaper by 2017 if services were run by the public sector instead of private firms, according to new research.

Action for Rail, which is to stage a demonstration at Glasgow Central station today (tue), said its research had found savings of £1.5 billion could be made over the next few years if lines were brought back into public ownership.

The group said passengers would benefit from the massive fare savings if money was recouped from the amount privatised rail operators give to shareholders, claiming £520 million could be saved in shareholder dividends over the coming years.

Tonight (tue), the first Caledonian Sleeper services to be run by Serco will begin operating followed tomorrow (wed) by Dutch operator Abellio's take over of the ScotRail network. Both were previously operated by FirstGroup.

At the start of the month, the East Coast route was taken over by Virgin-Stagecoach, having been in state ownership since 2009.

Action for Rail added that commuters on the UK's privatised railways could be spending more than twice as much of their salary on rail travel as passengers on state-owned services in France, Germany, Spain and Italy.

The day of action is taking place at more than 40 UK stations.

TUC general secretary Frances O'Grady, who chairs Action for Rail, said: "The UK has the most expensive rail fares in all of Europe. If services were run by the public sector, it would make a big difference to families and hard-pressed commuters, who have suffered year after year of wage-busting fare increases under privatised rail."

"This report highlights once again the huge cost of privatisation to taxpayers and passengers. Money that could be spent on making journeys cheaper is instead being siphoned off into shareholders' pockets and wasted on bidding and other franchising costs."

A spokesman for the Rail Delivery Group, which represents Network Rail and train operators, said the group's figures should be taken with a 'pinch of salt' as five times as much money now comes into public coffers from operators, compared to the 1990s.