The Metropolis

Tube fares are being increased up to 74% - and it seems like Boris tried to bury it yesterday

Darren Atwater | Thursday 21 October, 2010 15:56

Fares increased were quietly announced yesterday by Mayor Boris Johnson, hidden by the cutbacks wall of sound coming from Westminster.

Darryl noticed it first at 853

“Boris Johnson has announced single bus fares on Oyster will go up to £1.30 (the daily cap is up to £4). Bus cash fares are up to £2.20. There’s big rises in the cost of one day travelcards/ fare caps, the zone 2-6 ticket is withdrawn. If you live in zone 3 and occasionally commute into central London, you’ll be walloped by the withdrawal of the 3-zone daily peak travelcard.

As did Diamond Geezer

“You may be thinking so what, I never buy a One Day Travelcard anyway. But maybe you do, indirectly at least, through daily price-capping. Pay-as-you-go price caps are always set to match the relevant Travelcard, so if a Travelcard disappears then so will the matching price cap.

“For example, if you use your Oyster to swan around in Zones 1-3 all day, you currently never pay more than £8.60. Once the Z1-3 Travelcard vanishes you’ll have to pay up to £10.00 instead, which is the Z1-4 cap, plus any January price rise. Over a week, a month, a year, that’ll really add up.

“Or consider an Oyster user who makes four off-peak Zone 2-3 tube journeys in a day, each costing £1.80. At the moment the price cap kicks in at £5.10, which means the fourth journey is free. Once the Z2-6 Travelcard vanishes the price cap leaps to £7.50, which means the the fourth journey costs full price. Ouch.

Adam points out that the Evening Standard could not bother with the story:

“And yet in London’s only daily paper, Boris’s third consecutive year of rises barely gets a mention.

“There’s a short piece on page eight which mostly concentrates on national rail fares and a couple of other pieces claiming that London is a “winner” from the spending review (it’s not).

“But other than that almost nothing. Nothing on changes to travelcards, nothing on the raising of the daily price cap and nothing on the 44% rise in the price of a bus ticket since Boris came to power.

Annie Mole has a handy chart. We like charts.

TfL Fare Schedule [TfL PDF]

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