I'll pay for fares cut with £300m surplus, says Ken

A report today from Transport for London revealed it has amassed an operating surplus of £310 million.

Mr Livingstone has said he will wipe out Boris Johnson's six per cent fare increase if elected on May 3. The Labour candidate says he will use the surplus to pay for his seven per cent fares cut.

TfL has repeatedly said that extra money has been earmarked for major projects on the network, including upgrades on three key commuter lines - the Northern, Piccadilly and Bakerloo - as well as bigger trains on other routes. They say Mr Livingstone's plan would take £1.2 billion out of London's transport budget.

Mr Livingstone said: "This financial report is the latest document from TfL which confirms a fare cut is both affordable and necessary. The combination of rising fares and rising passenger numbers has meant TfL have got hundreds of millions of surplus income which they had not budgeted for.

"I believe after four long years of rising fares under London's Tory Mayor it's time to use TfL's huge operating surplus to cut the fares and save the average Londoner £1,000 over four years.
"Out of a transport budget of £9 billion if you can't find money to fund a fare cut there is something wrong."

TfL said they are projected to spend around £300 million less than planned this year but that the money will be used next year. A spokesman said the money cannot be used to cut fares.

A spokesman for Mr Johnson's re-election campaign said: "Judge Ken Livingstone by what he does, not what he says. Twice he has promised to keep fares down before an election and twice he has broken those promises. He has even admitted it in his own book.

"Before the 2004 mayoral election Ken Livingstone promised he wouldn't increase fares above inflation. After the election he broke his promise and increased fares above inflation."

Steve Allen, TfL's Managing Director of Finance, said: "TfL's quarter three financial reporting shows a small change in our expected full year expenditure due to the rephasing of some expenditure and the early delivery of efficiency savings necessary to protect front line transport services.

"The vast majority of this is not available to be spent on other things as it had already been allocated in TfL's budget to be spent on improvements in transport services at a later date.

"It is just a small proportion of this - some £30million - which reflects additional improvements since the budget was agreed."