Sian Berry AM calls on Mayor to campaign for urgent fares freeze
Londoners could face fare rises far higher than the rest of the country, questioning from Sian Berry reveals.
Sian said:
We're facing a time when all fares are going to go up, when Londoners are losing income, having their benefits cut, losing their work. We're in a recovery phase. So isn't this exactly the time for a fares freeze across the board, at least for one year? And what efforts have you made to get the Government and the Treasury to see the damage of what they're proposing, for example, by pointing out that fuel duty has been frozen for many, many years?
The Mayor responded: At a time when we're trying to encourage people to use public transport to avoid a car led recovery. At a time when we know the consequences of the pandemic plus Brexit are high levels of either low paid jobs or unemployment. One way to discourage the use of public transport is by increasing fares to the levels we are talking about.”
No progress has been made to prevent record fare rises for Londoners, and Transport Commissioner, Andy Byford admitted they could be reaching: “a tipping point beyond which you should not go.” He also acknowledged that: “if you make public transport unaffordable, people are less likely to use it.
A key part of the current emergency funding deal for Transport for London from the Government is a requirement for TfL to continue to plan for an assumption of fares increases of RPI plus one per cent, which given a figure of 3.8 per cent for RPI in July will mean an increase of 4.8 per cent in fares from January 2022.
Sian Berry also argued that the Mayor should be arguing for consistency between London and the rest of the country, and a nationwide fares freeze. She asked the Mayor: “I think the arguments for a fares freeze go nationwide. Are you talking to mayors of other cities, other people in local government about making this argument for a fares freeze for everybody in the country?”
The Mayor said he had not done this but described how: 'our fares freeze has led in London to the decrease in bus passenger usage, not being what it is in other parts of the country. It shows it makes economic sense actually to have fares that are not higher.'
Notes to editors
Sian is available for interview.
The full exchange is available to view on the London Assembly website: https://webcasts.london.gov.uk/Assembly/Event/Index/d9204cd8-1324-4e85-ba6d-e1324aa7fc13?in=2021-09-02T09%3A19%3A35.611Z&out=2021-09-02T09%3A26%3A28.463Z
There is a requirement in the current Transport for London Extraordinary Funding and Financing Agreement from Government that “TfL will continue with its existing plan to increase fares in line with their Business Planning assumption of an overall fares increase of RPI+1% on fares under the Mayor’s control in January 2022” in condition 22.
https://content.tfl.gov.uk/tfl-extraordinary-funding-and-financing-settlement-letter-1-june-2021.pdf
The ONS report a figure of 3.8% for RPI in July 2021: https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/inflationandpriceindices/timeseries/czbh/mm23