Biggest fares hike for a decade as TfL enters ‘managed decline’

West End Final
Jack Kessler @jackkessler114 February 2022
WEST END FINAL

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If I were looking to impart a positive spin on the biggest TfL fares increases in a decade, I might say it is at least, technically, below December’s 30-year high inflation rate of 5.4 per cent.

But that is only one of many reasons why I don’t work in political communications. Today’s announcement – an overall fares increase across all TfL services of an average of 4.8 per cent – will hit many Londoners already facing soaring energy costs, spiralling rents and higher taxes.

Our City Hall Editor Ross Lydall has all the figures, but here’s a handy cheat sheet:

  • Pay-as-you-go Tube fares in zone 1 up 10p to £2.50 (up 4.2 per cent)
  • Hopper bus fares that allow multiple journeys within an hour up 10p to £1.65 (up 6.5 per cent)
  • Daily “cap” on multiple pay-as-you-go Tube journeys rises 3.8 per cent.
  • Daily “cap” on bus journeys up 30p to £4.95.
  • Emirates cable car up 25 per cent to £5, with return tickets axed.
  • Minimum cash fare on the Tube up 80p to £6.30. 

These hikes are a far cry from the Sadiq Khan who froze pay-as-you-go fares in his first four years in office. But in truth, the Mayor was not left with much choice.

TfL’s latest government bailout is due to run out on 18 February. A rise of RPI inflation plus 1 per cent – equal to 4.8 per cent – had been part of the bailout agreed last year. While this condition was quietly dropped by Transport Secretary Grant Shapps, any shortfall from a smaller increase would not be covered by the Exchequer.

The government has demanded TfL break even by April 2023, but has simultaneously ruled out additional revenue-raising options from the Mayor, including a Greater London boundary charge and the devolution of Vehicle Excise Duty.

As a result of these financial constraints and in the absence of a long-term funding deal, TfL says it has already entered a period of managed decline.

That means fewer upgrades, huge cuts to budgets designed to encourage safe cycling and walking, no new signalling for the Piccadilly Line and as for Crossrail 2? You must be new here...

Elsewhere in the paper, the Metropolitan Police Federation has declared it has “no faith” in the Mayor following the “very public ousting” of Dame Cressida Dick as commissioner.

In the comment pages, deputy arts editor Jessie Thompson has her own declaration to make: Love is dead. Or more specifically, the rom-com is dead.

Jessie also gives her take on Louis Theroux’s latest series, Forbidden America. Did he give a platform to the far-Right by making a documentary about them? “They wish. What they got instead was scrutiny, and they didn’t like it.

And finally, the Vincent van Gogh exhibition at the Courtauld Gallery, in Somerset House is under fire for selling an ear-shaped rubber eraser costing £6.

Happy Valentine’s Day to all those who observe.

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