Our Fare Deal
Your report (24/11/11) of Ken Livingstone’s promise to reduce transport fares will be welcome by all those who use tubes, buses and the overground in Camden and Barnet. The detail is simple. If elected as London’s mayor next May, Ken will introduce an overall fares cut of 5% next autumn and ensure there are no further fare rises at all in 2013. In January 2014 and in subsequent years, fares would rise by no more than the price of inflation. These decisions will save Barnet and Camden residents hundreds of pounds. This is in contrast to Conservative Mayor Boris Johnson, who has raised fares by 21.1% between 2009 and 2011, even though inflation was just 8% over that period. Boris Johnson’s fare increases have meant the cost of a single bus fare using Oyster has risen by a staggering 56% since 2008, costing passengers £260 a year more. A weekly zone 1-4 travelcard is up 23% – costing £416 a year more. And there is more to come on January 3rd with Mayor Johnson’s above inflation fare rises scheduled for then. Ken Livingstone’s policy is clearly affordable too, without affecting future investment. It is staggering that Conservative Mayor Johnson has built up a massive £729 million transport surplus last year which is just sitting in the bank while fares are rising so steeply. In the first half of this year alone Transport for London has accumulated a £206 million surplus. Contrary to Conservative Boris Johnson’s claims, there is not a shred of evidence that a penny of the £729 million has been allocated to any capital transport project. This surplus income has come from increasing fare revenues (high fares) and lower expenditure. As TfL’s accounts make clear, this operating surplus is a completely separate budget to the capital budget, which funds investment. If elected, Ken will use the operating surplus to meet his pledge to cut fares. The annual reduction in the TfL’s surplus as a result of Ken’s 5% fare cut is £160 million. Barnet and Camden’s Conservative London Assembly Member Coleman has had nothing to say about Johnson’s shocking fare increases- nor has he written to raise anything strategic about the transport network at all since he was last elected in 2008. If I am elected next year, I will support Ken’s fares cuts policy and will take a proper interest in public transport issues, unlike Mr Coleman. Yours sincerely,
Andrew Dismore
Labour’s London Assembly Candidate for Barnet and Camden
