As Chair of Transport for London Mayor Johnson sets fares for bus, Tube, DLR, tram and London Overground services.
Since coming to office in 2008, the Mayor has increased fares by inflation-plus two-per cent annually, a formula he says is the only way to provide the “vital” money needed for new schemes and improvements to the capital’s public transport infrastructure.
However Mr Livingstone, who was Mayor between 2000-2008, says the increases have cost bus passengers “an extra £176 a year” since Johnson entered City Hall.
Earlier this year a City Hall survey revealed 48% of Londoners thought fares were “most in need of improvement” – up from 36% in 2009 – when asked to identify issues of concern to them.
Livingstone says the Mayor “to listen to the majority of Londoners who want above inflation increases to end”.
Asked at July’s Mayor’s Question Time to confirm he would stick to his current formula, the Mayor told Assembly Members he would not “play politics” with fares by “promising to hold them down and then whack them up, which is what you’d expect from my predecessor.”
