The cost of travelling on London’s tube and bus network will rise by almost 5% from next month, the biggest increase in more than a decade, as the body responsible for running the capital’s transport network struggles to plug a funding shortfall.
The average 4.8% rise, which matches the rate of inflation, means that most fares will increase by between 10p and 20p. However, some bus fares will rise by 6.5%.
It is the second year running that fares have increased, a situation the London mayor, Sadiq Khan, blamed on the row over the level of government funding for Transport for London (TfL), with the proportionate increase in tube prices the biggest since 2010, and the largest since 2009 on the bus network.
“Since TfL’s finances were decimated by the pandemic, the government has set strict conditions as part of the emergency funding deals to keep essential transport services running in London,” Khan said. “We have been forced into this position by the government and the way it continues to refuse to properly fund TfL.”
Khan, who had kept a partial fare freeze across the TfL network from his election as London mayor in 2016 until 2020, said he had done “everything in my power to keep fares as affordable as possible”.
Emma Gibson, the chief executive of the passenger watchdog London TravelWatch, said: “Many key workers and those on low incomes rely solely on the bus, as they can’t afford the tube or train, and they will be hit hardest by this rise.”
TfL, which Khan chairs, faces a deadline this Friday to hammer out a long-term funding arrangement with the government.
TfL’s finances have been hit heavily by the pandemic as commuters and holidaymakers stopped travelling. The situation has been exacerbated by the government’s plans to force the organisation to make efficiency savings to ultimately reach “financial sustainability”.
Before the pandemic, about 70% of TfL’s income came directly from fares, with grant income worth £700m a year from central government phased out between 2015 and 2019.
The RMT union said this month that tube workers are to go on strike on 1 and 3 March over fears for jobs, pensions and working conditions.
The Department for Transport said it had provided £4.5bn in emergency funding to TfL to help weather the pandemic, as well as pledging £1bn annually for capital investment annually until at least 2024-25, “all at a time of significant pressure on the national finances”.
“We’re aware that TfL are still feeling the after-effects of the pandemic but it is the mayor’s responsibility to accelerate overdue reforms that will ensure TfL becomes financially sustainable,” said a spokesperson for the department.
