Major changes to tube and bus fares
Big rises in some fares unless you pre-pay and kids travel for free on buses in 2004
The Mayor has announced wide-ranging changes to the public transport fares. There will be sharp rises for those travelling in Zone 1 with a 25% increase but good news for families as child fares are frozen and under 11s travelling for free on buses.
In a effort
to move public transport to a cashless system there will be no increase
in fares for passengers using the Oyster smartcard.
A single from Zone 2 to Zone 1 has increased by 10% to 2.20 and a single
from Zone 3 to Zone 1 is up by 8.7%.
The new fares begin on Sunday 4 January 2004 and are designed to cut queues at Tube stations and speed up buses by encouraging passengers to use pre-paid tickets. By this time the �pre-pay� facility on the new Oyster smartcard will be operational, allowing passengers to charge their Oystercards with money before travelling. The new fare package will stand for the next four years with any further annual increases pegged to no more than the rate of inflation.
On the buses passengers will pay only 70p per journey anywhere in London if they use the Oyster smartcard or if they buy Bus Saver tickets in advance. The £1 cash fare for central London bus journeys is also frozen but the cost of bus trips outside central London will increase from 70p to £1 for those paying cash. This is part of the policy to take cash off of the buses by 2005/06 making journeys quicker and drivers safer.
Ken Livingstone, Mayor of London, said: ��Use of pre-paid tickets helps speed up our bus service, reduce queues at Tube stations and make bus drivers safer by taking cash off the bus. The new package is also designed to encourage off-peak use of public transport when we have the most capacity. London�s transport network continues to improve, the most obvious example being the massive improvement of our bus network, but this comes at a cost that has to be met so we can keep the improvements coming. �
The Mayor claimed that despite the rise in bus for outer London the network had the lowest fares in Europe and America.
Tony Arbour Hounslow�s London Assembly Member condemned the rises highlighting the 43% rise in outer London bus fares. He said, �Mayor Livingstone promised not to increase fares for four years, and even then only in line with inflation. He has now broken that promise and come back with massive increases, which will hit outer London Boroughs hard. Trying to fill the gap in revenue from the congestion charge by increasing public transport fares is simply not on. Where is the improvement in services to justify this increase?
Overall the changes are expected to bring in an extra £81mn per annum making up for the shortfall in revenues from the congestion charge.
August 20, 2003
More details of fare changes (Adobe Acrobat required)
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