Tube Fare increase will make London's the world's most expensive subway system

Fantastic - so pleased I bought my annual travel card last week

Front page of today's Standard, although not on their website yet, is the news that Sheriff Ken Livingstone will be hiking up fares on buses and the London Underground from 2006.

"A single Tube journey in zone one will cost £3 instead of £2 while a single bus journey will rise from £1.20 to £1.50....."

said the BBC "However fares will fall for holders of the Oyster pre-pay smartcards. With Oyster, a zone one Tube ride will be cut from £1.70 to £1.50 - half the cash fare. Mr Livingstone said the aim was for fewer people to pay with cash." .......

"He conceded the new single Tube fare of £3 would probably be the most expensive in the world."

If we got anything like the service they have in Tokyo (which I think is currently the most expensive) with trains running like clockwork I don't think we would mind so much about paying for a good service.

"The fares announcement was also criticised by business representatives as being "desperately short-sighted" in view of the current retail slump on the high street and recent rise in the congestion charge.

"The Mayor seems determined to kill off London business by putting up the cost of visiting the capital by tube, bus or car," said Victoria Carson, spokesperson for the Forum of Private Business."

I'm loving Ken's rationale for the increase too: "This proposed fares package focuses on halving the number of cash journeys made in 2006 to speed up journeys and improve the efficiency of the network," So let's make it more expensive to travel so fewer people use public transport which will make the system "look" more efficient. Or let's reward people for paying in advance cos it will shorten the queues and speed up journeys (?). I think I'm missing something.

London Underground; Tube Posted by annie mole Tuesday, October 04, 2005 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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