Forum United Kingdom

[EasyExpat]

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 Mayor Ken Livingstone.

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. The big problem in London is that each ticket have to have a date on it, so you cannot buy it in advance several tickets for future trips (in cities like Paris there is no date, and the date is printed only when you validate the ticket by checking in). The aim is clearly for fewer people to pay with cash and avoid the current very long queues at the ticket offices.

However, it would hit those who cannot use Oyster cards because train companies running services to and from the capital still refuse to accept them (thank you the privatisation!!! )

In addition of that, the congestion charge for car used in centre London has raised recently from £5 to £8 a day.

So if a few months ago you were thinking about stoping using the car in London due to the raise of 60% of the charge, you are now hit by the raise of 50% if the public transport fares!

Only the richest people, living in zone 1 won't be affected: they are part of the congestion zone, so they pay a peppercorn of the charge each month, and they will use their Oyster card at a lower rate for public transports. Poorer people who cannot affort to live in a £500 000 one double bedroom and live further out and take the train or the car to go to London will be astonished by the new prices for their move.


Oh. by the way, the mayor Ken Livingston manifesto for the campaign in 2001 promised to freeze tube fares in real terms for four years. It raised from £1.70 to £3 from 2001 to 2005 (+75%). Apparently the mayor doesn't live with the same reality as Londoners

[paulos]

Yep!!! Thats our Kenneth!!

Also, taking into account the costs of implementing this congestion charge extension, it will take over seven years to break even and even begin to possibly profit. Hmmmmm

[EasyExpat]

Also, taking into account the costs of implementing this congestion charge extension, it will take over seven years to break even and even begin to possibly profit. Hmmmmm

Not sure. If Ken keeps rising the price every so often by 50%, you might break even very soon.

[polskasweetie]

Yeah, what's the deal with this guy anyway? I'm glad I have an Oyster card, but I got it just coz to easy my frustration of scrounging for change everytime i have to use public transport. I didn't even register my card, so i had to pay £3 "deposit" for non-registration! Imagine that!

Ken is probably not affected by all of this, coz I heard government officials, specially as high as Ken, have "cost of living" allowances, so whatever congestion charges, tube fare changes, petrol price increases, happen, Ken is protected...

Oh well...it pays to be rich eh? Argh!