Fares Increases

The Assembly notes that the Mayor promised in his 2012 manifesto that:

“Londoners deserve honesty and openness over fare setting. My approach will ensure that fares will be lower in the long term…By cutting waste at TfL my approach will keep fares low in the long term.”

The Assembly also recognises that the latest TfL Business Plan states: 

“this Business Plan assumes that fares will increase at RPI plus one per cent each January for the period to 2014/15 over which TfL has a funding settlement with Government.”

The Assembly regrets the fact that the TfL Business Plan bears no relationship to the promises made in the Mayor’s manifesto and notes that, rather than delivering lower fares, the Mayor has increased fares by 33% during his time in office. This equates to a real-terms increase of 14% over the same period. 

This Assembly also notes that the Mayor’s fare increases have disproportionately impacted on bus users, with single fares increased by 55% - from 90p to £1.40 – since he took office in 2008.

This Assembly challenges the Mayor to keep his manifesto promise and calls on him not to increase fares by more than the rate of inflation for the rest of his tenure as mayor.

Further, this Assembly recognises that even with future fares increases limited to inflation, there are special cases where targeted fare reductions are needed. This Assembly therefore calls on the Mayor to bring forward targeted fare reductions, namely for:

• A one-hour bus ticket – allowing bus passengers to change buses within a one hour period

• Early-bird fares – bringing discounted fares for people who travel early in the morning and helping to reduce congestion in the morning peak

• Part-time Travelcards – recognising the increase in the number of part-time workers and bringing their transport costs into line with full-time workers.