Sadiq Khan confirms 2020 TfL fare freeze
Transport for London (TfL) fares will remain unchanged in 2020, Sadiq Khan has confirmed.
The mayor of London’s fare freeze is now into its fourth year, after promising to not rise TfL prices in his first term.
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The freeze will continue after next may’s London mayoral election, effectively binding the hands of whoever wins the poll.
The freeze only includes individual journeys and not weekly, monthly and annual travel cards.
“Alongside my £1.50 Hopper fare – which allows people unlimited changes on bus and tram journeys for free within an hour – we are making transport more affordable for millions of Londoners,” Khan said.
“In stark contrast, when he was mayor, Boris Johnson increased TfL fares by a staggering 42 per cent.”
Shashi Verma, Tfl’s director of strategy, added: “Millions of people travel using bus, Tube and rail services across London and through our pay as you go fares system we are helping to encourage more people out of their cars and onto public transport.”
Khan’s fare freeze has attracted criticism from some quarters for contributing to TfL losses.
The transport body is expected to make a £742m loss in 2019-20.
Conservative mayoral candidate Shaun Bailey said in September that an increase in TfL fares would be a “done deal” under him.
“It’s not me putting them up, it’s the reality of the world putting them up,” he said.
“What I would have done is not done the bogus fares freeze at the beginning to leave us with such a big gap to jump.”
Read more: Rory Stewart signals potential fare rise as he slams TfL losses
Independent mayoral challenger Rory Stewart also indicated to Morning Wire that he would likely raise TfL prices if elected.
“The major problems [for TfL] have been around funding and I’m afraid a lot of that has been around fare freezes, but also about drops on the numbers of people on buses,” Stewart said.