Tuffrey, who is hoping to become the Liberal Democrat 2012 Mayoral candidate, used Wednesday’s Mayor’s Question Time session to urge Boris Johnson to introduce a formal consultation process on fares changes when he announces next year’s new fares package.
New fares for all Transport for London services come into effect each January and are typically published a few months earlier but there is currently no right for Londoners to give feedback on any changes.
Tuffrey said if the Mayor did not introduce a new consultation process he would include it in his manifesto should he win the Liberal Democrat Mayoral nomination.
After the meeting Tuffrey said: “The Mayor must give Londoners the chance to examine his proposed increases before he implements them. That will stop any more stealth increases that hit outer London so hard last year.”
Asked to confirm he would stick to his current policy of increases equal to inflation + 2%, 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.”
With July’s RPI figure – the month used by TfL when calculating fares increases – standing at 5%, Londoners could face fare increases of up to 7%.
