City Hall Greens call for fares cut after bus usage falls

Boris Johnson has been urged to lower fares after Government figures revealed the number of bus journeys in London fell last year for the first time since 1998.

Figures published by the Department for Transport shows bus ridership declined by 0.4% last year.

London Assembly Member Darren Johnson says the fall is down to rising fares and a failure to increase capacity on bus routes despite the capital’s growing population.

He has also warned that the Mayor’s policies are encouraging more Londoners to drive.

In May the Mayor said there had been “a small increase” of around 1% in car journeys in 2012/13.

Assembly Member Johnson said: “The last decade has seen car journeys in London decline as bus journeys rise.

“This current Mayor has put that long term trend into reverse by freezing the bus network and trying to pack London’s growing population onto the same number of buses. It is a disastrous policy for Londoner’s and our environment.

”The Mayor needs to reduce fares and discourage driving. To ensure the successes in London aren’t reversed we need to be looking at increasing the cost of driving a car and decreasing the cost of public transport.”

Responding to Mr Johnson’s comments Leon Daniels, TfL’s Managing Director of Surface Transport, said: “London has one of the most reliable and extensive bus networks in the world with a fare structure that offers Londoners and visitors to our city excellent value for money.

“We carried fewer bus passengers last year due to the Olympic and Paralympic Games and because there were three less working days than the year before.

“The reality is London’s bus network is more popular than it has been since the 1960s. In the first quarter of this year we carried two million passengers more than we expected, and 11 million more than in the same period last year.”