Ken Livingstone, the Mayor of London, yesterday announced the fares package for next year which are set to see cash bus fares increase to £2 a journey.
The new fare regime continues the Mayor’s policy of encouraging passengers to encourage people to take up the Oyster card which, it is claimed, speeds up buses and reduce ticket queues at Tube stations. Many cash fares will be double their Oyster pay-as-you-go equivalent.
Two years ago the Mayor announced that bus fares would rise by 10 per cent above inflation for three subsequent years to help fund the biggest investment programme on London transport since the war.
However he has announced that this year’s increase has been reduced from 10 per cent to just 3.8 per cent above inflation following efficiency savings at Transport for London.
Speaking yesterday Mr Livingstone said his investment programme “has been a success” adding “bus ridership is now up two million a day on six years ago [and] Tube ridership is near record levels”
The Mayor said Transport for London has “been achieving financial success through major efficiency savings and greatly increased advertising revenue. Due to this I am pleased to announce that the original third 10 per cent fares increase needed to fund the investment programme can be cut by two thirds”.
Bus Fares:
- The Oyster peak single fare remains frozen at £1 – the Oyster one day cap is also frozen, which means Oyster users will never pay more than £3 regardless of how many trips they take each day
- Passengers who choose not to use Oyster will now pay £2 in cash for the same journey
- The Oyster off-peak fare will rise from 80p to £1
- The One Day Bus Pass is frozen at £3.50 and the Weekly Bus Pass increases in line with inflation from £13.50 to £14.00
- In the last year, cash use on buses has dropped from 10 per cent of all journeys to five per cent
- The overall increase in bus fares equals RPI plus 3.8 per cent
Tube Fares:
- All Oyster single fares are frozen across London and the daily Oyster cap remains 50p below the One Day Travelcard price
- The cash single fare for all journeys via Zone 1 will be £4 – this means passengers using Oyster pay-as-you-go for journeys into Zone 1 could save up to £2.50 per trip
- Travelcards will rise by RPI + two per cent on average. There is no change to the cash fare for non Zone 1 journeys
- Cash use on the Tube has halved from just under 15 per cent in 2005 to around six per cent
- The overall package for the Tube is RPI + one per cent
Family fares:
- Under-16s able to travel on the Tube and DLR using Oyster pay-as-you-go for just 50p per ride with a maximum cost of just £1 using Oyster
- Under-11s continue to travel free on the Tube and DLR
- Sixteen and 17-year-olds in full-time education continue to travel free on the buses
