Mayor's Pledge To Freeze Travel Fares Goes Off The Rails

By Londonist Staff Last edited 93 months ago
Mayor's Pledge To Freeze Travel Fares Goes Off The Rails
Photo by RachelH_ in the Londonist Flickr pool

Remember Sadiq Khan's promise to freeze public transport fares for four years? Turns out that probably won't apply if you use a travelcard. Or daily capping. And that's most of us.

The fly in the ointment is rail fares, which don't fall under Transport for London (TfL). To freeze these fares, the Department for Transport would have to compensate rail companies — which is highly unlikely to happen.

TfL confirmed today, at a session in front of the London Assembly, that the fares freeze will cost around £640m over four years, not the £1.9bn over five years figure bandied around during the election. It's now clear that this will apply to buses and single fares only.

Travelcards could rise by inflation plus 1% a year if no extra government funding is forthcoming. This has happened for the last few years — let's see if they're up for continuing that policy under Sadiq Khan.

This tweet from BBC correspondent Tom Edwards shows what was promised in Khan's election manifesto:

Conservative member of the London Assembly, Andrew Boff, has already been making some harsh comments about the mayor:

Is Khan's mayoral honeymoon over?

Last Updated 08 June 2016