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Mayor warns of further Tube and bus fare increases
Ross Lydall09.09.09
Boris Johnson today warned passengers to expect another rise in Tube and bus fares.
He said a "massive black hole" in Transport for London's finances could prevent him keeping a pledge to cut fares in line with lower high street prices.
TfL's budget already predicts a six per cent rise in fares next year - on top of the same increase imposed by the Mayor in January - to raise an extra £188million.
But since the budget was drawn up, there has been an estimated 10 per cent fall in Tube revenue as a result of the recession.
The cost of the 30-year Tube modernisation scheme has also soared, amid concerns about a drop in future government grants.
Today Mr Johnson refused requests from the London Assembly to confirm he would follow TfL policy that calculates fares at one per cent above the retail prices index for July.
This was minus 1.4 per cent, and has already resulted in privatised train firms, which are not under the Mayor's control but follow the same formula, being told to cut some fares.
However Mr Johnson promised fares would be "competitive" with other cities - though surveys consistently find London is the most expensive city in the world, with a one-stop Tube ride in central London costing £4 for a cash fare.
Mr Johnson said: "I am not going to tell you now what the fares package of January 2010 is going to be. Fares in London will remain extremely affordable and competitive by comparison with other major cities."
But under pressure from Labour and the Lib-Dems to stick by his pledge last year to "fully reflect" the decline in the RPI rate - which is down from five per cent in July last year - he said: "There are very considerable pressures on the TfL budget."
He attributed this to the "cynical" approach of former mayor Ken Livingstone, who Mr Johnson accused of deliberately holding down fares for political advantage - damaging TfL's finances.
"We are still paying the price for those decisions," Mr Johnson said.
"There was a chronic refusal by the previous administration to be brave enough to give TfL the funding it needed.
"There are huge pressures on our budget. We have a massive black hole to deal with."
Lib-Dem transport spokeswoman Caroline Pidgeon said: "The Mayor cannot pick and choose when he decides to follow the long-standing formula for setting fares. He must keep to his side of the bargain and at least freeze fares for 2010.
"At a time when many Londoners are facing difficult economic times it would be unforgivable for the Mayor to break from the formula and push fares up next year."
A spokeswoman for London Travelwatch said: "We would be very disappointed if the fares are very far above inflation."
Reader views (51)
I cycle in London as its faster, cheaper and better for my health. But I accept many Londoners' cannot do that and for them the above inflation increases will be very tough.Boris needs to get people on buses not price them off public transport.
- Andrew, London
Did you honestly believe that Boris Johnson was a Champion for The Ordinary Person in the street ? Well you have all been " Fooled " by a Politician yet again.
- Mr Tomis, London
However Mr Johnson promised fares would be "competitive" with other cities -
London is the most expensive city for tube fares in the world, beating, Tokyo, Osaka & Oslo, the three most expensive cities in the world. Even in Scandinavia where everything is expensive, the transport system is reasonably priced, lower than London, because it is subsidised by tax payers & it is world class, clean, efficient and runs on time.
- Frank, Copenhagen, Denmark
the problem is ken did keep the price down and wasted millions of hard working taxpayers money on community projects eg 2 million on helping ethnic minorites become cab drivers and silly propaganda newspapers we now have a recession so lets reduce benefits as its quite obvious to me they still wont be using the tube for going to interviews
- Joan Simms, london
However Mr Johnson promised fares would be "competitive" with other cities
Is this man from another planet or just plain stupid
I lived in New York for many years where the subway system is dirty, there are no endless announcements, the next train is not anounced....BUT it costs £14.50 as opposed to £44.00. This allows full use of the subway, no RIP OFF ZONES...AIR CONDITIONING on EVERY TRAIN....A driver and conducter on every train..TRAINS THAT RUN 24/7 365 days of the year...Trains that run in 3 feet of snow...If a subway line is closed for replair there is not the endless weekends we have to put up with in London of total incompetence and buses...
So Mayor do you want to discuss the two systems regarding which one provides the better service
I for one will not pay this increase...we the commuters need to stand up for ourselves, the tubes decide when enough is enough and i am now at the point where i have had enough
- Francis, Harrow
it seems like yesterday when TFL raised the bleedy fares..why don't they use the increases to end service later in the night...ease crowding on trains which makes us feel like sardines in a tin....The Tube is a great system in terms of getting you from point a to point b, but there always room for improvement
- Adam, Toronto, Canada
Why not raise the penalty fares for the people that don't pay and keep the other fares as they are?
50 pounds is not much considering these people possibly do it on a daily basis and in the end safe more being penalty fared twice a year than buying a ticket.
- Josh, London
I feel sorry for Boris because he is working with TfL, who are useless. For example, round the corner from me is a set of traffic lights with pedestrian buttons which return to a default error setting every 254 hours. For the mathematicians, this is 2 to the power of 8, but zero is used for ‘always error’ and 255 for ‘never error’ so 254 is the maximum number of hours for the time setting. Nobody in TfL has the wit to think of any solution other than sending an engineer to reset the lights every 10 days. If they can’t manage a simple set of lights, how can they manage a whole tube network?
Then we look at page 18 and see a picture of Boris on a bike, what’s wrong with this picture?
First, according to my 15 year old son, she’s hot, he’s not
Secondly, she’s riding in heels, he’s in a suit, not ideal clothing for real cycling
Thirdly, they are on the pavement. Usually, although in my opinion wrongly, illegal.
Fourthly, he has a helmet, but for some reason he’s wearing it on his handlebars, not on his head, I’m sure they feel much safer
Fifthly, look at his body language:
Feet, cycling using his instep, not the ball of his feet as he should be, and she is
Hands, over the brakes, not confident
Face, doesn’t look happy, she does
He looks like a man who uses his bike as a PR exercise.
Finally, what’s his lock doing, is it just waving around
- None Of The Above, London, England
Would it be too crazy to suggest that the kids start paying again?
- Josh, London
Let's not forget that bloody Clown and his rubbish PFI. How much has/will that cost??? Give the incompetent idiot the bill.
And didn't that blathering LIAR also state he wants to give the IMF $11 BILLION!!!???
Then, there's the EU getting more of our £ BILLIONS, care of our resident MORON-IN-CHARGE, ID cards etc etc etc.
Cancel all that, and problem solved!
- Ralph, London
"Boris should not forget the needs of the very people that put him in power"
Suburban motorists? Yep, he's not forgotten them, losing millions in income from the congestion charge, scrapping bendy buses and fooling around with the VanityMaster bus project has to be paid for somehow, generally by people foolish enough to be poor and rely on public transport to get round the city. That's not the Boris way, chaps! Buck up! Get a Lexus, dammit.
- Tom, London, UK
This is a another example for Boris to give bad publicity
to tourist crowd,as he well knows that the localretails
depends on them,without which London would be like any other city such as Portsmouth,Plymouth or Southampton,which as a better to live in.
- Jason Roberts, Santa Barbara,California,USA
I have the revolution and solution to all the problems, cost, fares, green issues ect...CLOSE the Tube in the Zone 1. ,,let people WALK. Wonder how many realize 'shanks pony' is healthier, cheaper, , better for the environment and probably quicker.
- Clif, London
OK,fares going up WHY? london is not a 24hour city yet.1230 ,let shut and go home.it's mad.2009 everything shuts early.2012.lol
- John Carrd, north london
..the underground is a disgrace..not even airconditioned..
Public transport needs to be a not for profit outfit back in the public sector immediately!
- Raymond, Poole
The fact is a vote for Boris was a vote for higher fares!!!
Well with £3 million extra now being wasted on 3 routes which work best with Artic buses it just makes one wonder how many millions it will cost for full removal?
No one, especially this paper that supported Boris and his fantasy of routemaster buses (well WE DONT PAY CASH FARES ANYMORE - So what is a conductor for?). fact is the latest designs appear to be a modern bus with a door that can be left open!!!
As for cash fares the time has come to surely abolish these starting with tube return fares which are nearly always far more than OYSTER.
While on the buses instead of expanding the central prepay zone to eliminate cash fares on buses and the dangers this causes, Boris has instead removed RTM's (Roadside Ticket Machines) an action which leads to ticketless passengers paying more as they are denied the facilty to buy 1 day bus tickets. Its odd how London must be the only place on earth where buses dont sell day tickets.
His new pink scheme does show some inititive however I understand the new Shoreditch High Street Station on the East London line is in zone 1 which will preclude pink oyster users from this line.
Finally there is the Western C-Charge zone which Boris has said he wants to remove but this will both create a hole in income and where will funds to remove it come from ? As this cost it must not come from fares!!
- Melvyn Windebank, Canvey Island, Essex
Well- it looks like the honeymoon is wellnd truly over!
Boris- instead of pursuing your vanity/ pointless projects, do the right thing. Leave in place the C Charge, and emissions controls, keep efficient mass transit (bendies to you) and admit you lied about them being cyclist-killers to whip-up a frenzy. Dump the pointless RM replacement. Apologise to Hugo Chavez (like you, also a media "star" now!) and get back the deal for subsidised oil. In fact, get Ken back to run the whole show, I've missed you on Have I Got News For You !!
And stop blaming Ken for supressing fares for political advantage- he had no reason to as he always thought he was going to win!
Ken has ALWAYS championed low fares for the working people of London e.g. the GLC's Fares Fair policy, part of a plan to make travel free for all Londoners, ruined for all by the collusion of a panicked Tory Government, their business interests and one suburban Tory borough. This lead to a 100% increase in fares and a drastic decline in passenger numbers, congestion, polution and misery.
Still, better than having Ken as the successful implementer of an innovative policy that benefitted the hard working masses. Too much of a risk to a fledgling Thatcher Govt not yet able to bathe in the glory of a phoney war half way across the world!
- Fresh, London
Removing part of the congestion charge does not help. Also allowing senior citizens to travel in the morning peak, how many of those are getting this perk whilst still in paid employment? To my mind both are part of the reason why the number of passengers have dropped off in the morning.
I also agree that Bendy buses are better than double deckers provided they are used on a fairly straight route.
Boris Johnson should spend a bit more time thinking about the job he was elected for. He would then at least realise that anything but a fare freeze in January will be totally unacceptable.
- Harry H, London UK
How about sacking those guys on the tube platforms who tell you when the next train will be. I find looking at the display board normally does the trick!
- Paul, London
Boris , raise the congestion charge, raise parking charges and fines, and get the dumbasses out of there cars and onto the tube, then use the revenue from more passenger numbers and car charges to lower fares a little./
- Brian, Wiltshire
Bumbling Boris fails again. The London transport system is one of the most expensive in Europe. A city such as London needs cheap efficient transport. Instead of wasting our money on profits for incompetent buck passing private contractors the whole system needs to brought under public control.
- Mick, London, England
How's about paying less to the overpaid and underworked drivers and tube staff, and if they don't like it fly in Eastern Europeans with a work ethic to do a better job for half the cost. And with the money saved cut fares.
- Andrew Parsons, London
MORE MONEY TO USE A ROPEY TRANSPORT SYSTEM THAT LAGS BEHIND THIRD WORLD COUNTRIES ,THEY MUST BE JOKING.
A bus fare costs me £2.00p whether i travel from one side of london to the other or pop down the road to see my freind Disko Hassan for our bi-weekly chess games.
A more fitting fare would be 2 shillings for a local fare , if you can get a seat thats not covered in urine,vomit ,lice or crabs.
Our Transport system is unusable by genteel people after dark , due to nee'er do wells and cockney ruffians, and i for one find it hard to visit a theatre , without being hassled by idiots playing tinny music on their phones or foul beggars asking for change , or the dirty drunk/hobo singing and breaking wind.MORE POLICE ON THE BUSSES AND TUBES I SAY ,MORE POLICE NOW AND NOT THESE STUPID PCSO'S , DO THEY TAKE US FOR FOOLS.
I am also disgusted by the food eaten on the tube.A woman on the tube the other day was eating this foul smelling fried chicken from a box, sucking the marrow from the bones and singing songs about jesus AND NOT A BOBBY IN SIGHT.
I shall be cycling around London in future, thats if im not knocked off my velocipede again by a half blind hackney cab driver.
MR (DON'T MAKE ME LAUGH) PASTRY
- Mr Pastry, london
Alex, London -> Boris also had "lower fares" in his manifesto, but I don't see that happening. I know I'd rather he fulfilled his lower fares pledge rather than frittering money away on less vital manifesto pledges such as bendies and routemasters.
- Mark Lee, Vauxhall
Why is he talking of competion when the tube is a monopoly, and an expensive one at that!!
- Kev G, Cersay, France
Tourists are going to love this . . . NOT!
What about the average punter that has no alternative but to use tubes and buses?
What a fantastic advertisement for the 2012 Olympics . . . NOT!
How many "jobs and sources of income" does Mayor Boris Johnson personally have? What is his NET income from ALL sources per annum? Ah yes, he can easily afford ANY increase that he imposes!
- Fraser, Telford Park
Thanks Boris, another £72 a year so you can indulge your schoolboy nostalgia for Routemaster buses (from which people used to fall with astonishing regularity, I've never seen anyone fall off a bendy buses, astonishing isn't it?)
- Blue Baby, London
As with most institutional organisations in this country we allow people to administer,manage and operate them who,really, haven't a clue.
Bring in the French,German and Swiss specialists and lets get Britain moving efficiently,on time,and economically
- C.Cooper, London U.K.
Mr Johnson promised fares would be "competitive" with other cities - though surveys consistently find London is the most expensive city in the world, with a one-stop Tube ride in central London costing £4 for a cash fare"
What planet is he on??. This is about uncompetitive as it gets. PPP was predicted to be a disaster and now all TFL commuters are paying for it.
- Paul B, London
we pay congestion charge but our roads are wrecked they keep hitting us for money but the services never improve,who decided to put those stupid giant screens in tube stations emmiting more heat...this country has turned into a 3rd world shadow
- Rsaviour, lonodn england
tfl=joke boris johnson=joke congestion charge=joke
- Rsaviour, lonodn england
Inrease in fares to underpin an inefficient transport service, which, when it feels like it, holds the entire city to ransom? You are having a laugh Boris !
- Maya - London, London
Tfl waists a lot of money by trying to go for the cheap option in the first place, then finding out the hard way it doesn't work and then having to fork out extras to make something work.
Raising the fares isn't going to make much of a difference in the budget, tfl's money comes in from the advertising they make.
How bout having companies advertising on oyster wallets like Ikea? or having advertising on the back of the paper tickets? Probably would make more money than raising the fares of the now already over the top rates.
- Josh, London
Can somebody please explain what has happened to all the money raised from the congestion charge? We were told that it would be used to improve the standard of transport in London but in reality things have become worse. At the same time fares have been raised and we also pay more council taxes. There must be an immediate investigation into this scandal.
- Paula Hickman, London
Well said David Potts, i was thinking the exact same thing, and i could not have put it more eloquently. This is what Londoners get for voting for someone they 'liked' as opposed to someone who had was actually concerned with the well being of Londoners.
- Kh, London UK
How much of this will be for Boris's vanity projects? 'New-style Routemasters' and replacing perfectly functioning bendy buses with brand new vehicles, requiring more vehicles per route because they don't hold as many people, meaning more drivers and maintenance crews to pay.
- Mark Lee, Vauxhall
TfL should do all they can to keep fares to a minimum during these difficult times. But, David - one person's 'vanity project' is another person's manifesto commitment. And we collectively did vote Boris into office, new Routemaster, no bendy buses and all the rest!
- Alex, London
Ahh how little we remember. Especially Sarah - you should look at history to find fault
So Ken contested the modernisation scheme claiming it was better in house - guess what - he was correct. The government should have found better ways of financing it. Of course it was New Labours (and Old Conservatives) dream project - PPP!
Now it is costing far more than these expert companies forcast and why? Because they are only after the money - they seem to still achieve profits even though they ask for more money and everything fails.
And whilst on Budget, we already know that most of Boris' gripes for the Bendy Bus were pure fabrication and now they are being scrapped at the expense of fare payers. From most surveys now people are used to them, most people prefer them to double deckers (which mostly have half empty upper decks and crowded lower decks because people on short hops don't go up).
Add to this the removal of revenue from the Western Extension CC, and that because of too higher polution levels in London as a whole, London will be fined millions by the EU from 2011 for this to be paid by... oh yes you and I. Unless Boris coughs up to help us out of the muddle he has made!
Still living on the Jubilee line it will be nice to know that I have to pay more and still get no service of a weekend.
Thanks BoJo, can you turn the lights off as you leave.
- Ian, NW10
Yet again those that work in the the capital get hammered and have to pay for everyone else
- Todd'S, Hertfordshire
Increasing fares is total insanity. I thought the goal was to get cars(and greenhouse gasses! if you believe the hype) off the streets by cheaper, efficient Underground. Well, in Moscow, where I live there is a flat fee of just 44p for wherever you want to go across the 50 mile network, trains are rarely more than 3 mins apart, and escalators work. What is wrong with the UK?
- Philip, Moscow, Russia
Sarah - Do you work for Conservative Central Office??!!
- Gareth Crane, Barking
And here was I being told that Ken Livingstone was the cause of a lot of fare rises and other ills which beset us all at present. Is this a foretaste of things to come if Tories regain power. Gordon has got some rivals now .
T H Leeds
- Thomas Hayes, Leeds UK
Whilst unlike some of your other commenters, who presumably must have access to TfL organisation structure documents and have the skills to judge management work rates etc, I can't comment on how good or bad TfL senior mamangement is. However I do know how much Boris's "Vanity Projects" are costing TfL, the replacement of bendi-buses because of his mistaken belief that they were a danger to cyclists and the so-called son-of-Routemaster (which incidentally will look nothing like the original Routemaster). Perhaps this is where Boris should look first to try to save a few quid.
- David Potts, London,UK
Let me give you a clue on TfL waste. I used to work in a TfL owned building where we had around 30-35 people working on one floor. TfL wanted it back, so we moved on and they moved THREE people in!
- Paul, London
6% fare rise is "Chicken feed"...
- Scrappy-Doo, London
Sarah, London
Instead of doing your daily "Ken bashing", why don't you see the reality? Why should fairs rise above inflation? Do we know where the extra money actually goes, and is it all accountable? Why should we pay more for the rubbish service we receive?
Those are the questions we should all be asking, not harking back to the past administration.
- Rod, Epping, UK
I'm not sure if Transport for London really are so short of cash. This organisation is always happy to incur expensive rents for swanky offices and is never slow to pay generous bonuses to management who actually do very little. The task of actaully running tube trains and buses is far too tedious for these important people to bother with - on Sunday, for example, when thousands of people would have used public transport to get to Lords to watch the cricket, the daft decision was made to close the Jubilee Line! Incompetent.
- Simon Ellis, London E8
London has the most expensive tube system in Europe. It's not about raising fares and hitting the unfortunate commuter AGAIN - it should be about addressing the waste and ineptitude at TfL.
- Marianne, SW France/London
I am sorry, whilst TFL should offer value for money more importantly it is A SERVICE FOR LONDONERS. Yes those Londoners who are looking for work, on low pay or are students- those who cannot afford to pay for taxies or pay congestion charges and parking fees to use their own cars.
When providing a service all good sellers, and yes the Mayor of London IS selling a service, will meet the needs of their customers to keep them happy - unless of course they are a monopoly provider. and yes TFL is a monopoly provider through their transport agents.
Boris should not forget the needs of the very people that put him in power and his actions must reflect the financial hardship of the many Londoners that have no choice other than use public transport, that goes for SE trains as well !
- James, London UK
Boris is being realistic about what Tube fares should be. The previous Mayor kept fares low to fool people into believing he was doing good for London, and now payback time has come. Good for Boris for saying the truth that fares need to go up to pay for Ken's chaotic modernisation scheme, which has been a total and utter disaster.
- Sarah, London
It's about time Boris addressed the massive waste in TfL, particularly in terms of the huge number of overpaid senior management positions which are entirely superfluous to the delivery requirements of TfL. Jobs for the boys doesn't even begin to describe the scandalous culture which has been allowed to develop there. Secondly he needs address the organisation being a cash-cow for a myriad of consultants who add very little [even if they are capable of doing so and want to]. Having worked there as one myself it is a totally dysfunctional organisation. Do something Boris.
- Oscillator, UK
