Election ploy? Off-peak Friday tube trial was Sadiq Khan’s decision, says TfL
Transport for London (TfL) has admitted it was instructed to run a £24m trial offering off-peak fares on Friday by Mayor Sadiq Khan, ahead of his bid for a historic third time in office.
Rachel McLean, TfL’s chief financial officer, said it was “a mayoral decision and direction” following questions surrounding the timing of the trial, which began just two months before London’s mayoral election.
The role of Khan, who is also chairman of TfL, was brought up during a City Hall budget and performance committee hearing intended to scrutinise the transport operator’s budget.
The Mayor’s three-month pilot, which scrapped peak fares every Friday on the London’s tube and rail network, was branded an “expensive election bribe” by critics when it was first announced. It was advertised throughout the London Underground alongside promotions of several discount offers on restaurants and attractions.
“The purpose of the trial was to see whether by changing the fares and running the off peak service it carried not only improvements or potential impacts for TfL, but more broadly whether it had an affect on business outcomes during that period,” McLean told the Committee.
But she struggled initially to find an answer when questioned on why the trial took place when it did. “It arose at a natural moment of working through our budget, rather than any other specific reason,” she said.
Data released in June showed the trial had a limited impact on tube journeys into London. Trips increased by just three per cent year-on-year between March 8 and March 31, according to TfL. Some 3.3m were made on the final Friday of the scheme, 54,000 fewer than on the Friday before the trial began.
It will raise eyebrows amid long-running concern surrounding TfL’s finances, since the pandemic wiped out passenger numbers and revenue.
There was confusion over the scheme in January amid talks between TfL and train operators. TfL suggested the capital’s train companies would be given £2m a week to reduce their fares, but TfL said less money than that was available.
The operator has received over £6bn in government bailouts in the post-pandemic era and reached only its a first ever operating surplus earlier this year. It has repeatedly warned there is still not enough spare cash to pursue vital capital investment projects across the network, including upgrading ageing Bakerloo Line trains responsible for significant delays and cancellations.
Responding to McLean’s answers, committee member Alessandro Georgiou said £24m “on a whim seems like quite an expensive trial without a good robust, financial case behind it.”
TfL argues passenger number recovery on Friday’s has been lower than other days of the week since the pandemic, making finding a solution all the more important.
“It’s incumbent on us and the mayor to try different ways of stimulating demands on Friday’s… and that was one of the reasons that we implemented the trial,” the transport operator’s finance director, Patrick Doig, said.
Responding to the claims, a spokesperson for the Mayor said: “Supporting Londoners with the cost of living, and supporting London’s wider economic recovery is a key part of Sadiq’s role as Mayor.
“Sadiq asked TfL to trial off-peak Fridays – with the backing of businesses across the city – to see if it would boost London’s Friday economy and encourage more Londoners into the city, to enjoy the amazing things the capital has to offer.
“Full data from the trial will be gathered and analysed to inform future decision-making or other potential innovative approaches to fares.
“The Mayor and TfL are continually working to explore ways of making transport as affordable and accessible as possible for Londoners, and supporting London’s businesses.”