Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at 10:21:06 on Tue, 19 Nov
2019, Recliner remarked:
https://metro.co.uk/2019/11/18/trans...-tube-dlr-bus-
tram-fares-sadiq-khan-says-11173313/

At a time when political promises are being made daily, it always pays
to ask about the small print.

So when Khan said

"I want to be crystal clear - no ifs, no buts - what you'll pay
if I'm elected Mayor in May 2016 is what you'll pay at the end
of my 4 years in office."

What he delivered was: all fares on buses and trams, plus single pay-as-
you-go Tube and DLR fares; but Daily and weekly price caps, plus weekly,
monthly and annual travelcards, are not included in the freeze.

So lots of people are paying many pennies more.

There are inevitable structural reasons why this might be the case, but that
simply brings the original pledge into more disrepute.

To be fair, I think he always made clear that his promise only applied to
TfL fares, and not those that included any actual or potential mainline
rail use, over which he had no control.


His manifesto had

"Freeze TfL transport fares for four
years ... Londoners won’t
pay a penny more for their travel
in 2020 than they do today."

No qualifications.

Also reported as:

"I want to be crystal clear, no ifs, no buts, what you will pay
if I'm elected Mayor in 2016 as a traveller in London is what
you'll pay at the end of my four years in office.

Note, "a traveller", not a "TfL passenger" although he did later start
claiming success based on bus/tram fares alone.

And he did exactly what he promised: he *did* freeze TfL transport fares.
He didn't, and couldn't, freeze fares set by the DfT. Travelcards and caps
that include elements of both TfL and DfT fares were accordingly not
frozen. But bus-only fares were.

What he promised, when questioned on the manifesto, was to freeze the
price of people's journeys to work. If anything he longer the campaign
went on, the more generic it became.

"For millions of workers in London, the cost of travel is a huge
part of their annual salary. With spiralling housing costs, the
mayor has the ability to help ease the financial burden for
commuters and I will deliver for them."

But his cat is out of the bag, his goose cooked (or is that the
electorate's goose)

There's a different, more valid criticism of his policy: was it wise to
damage TfL's revenue stream in that way? TfL is now in serious financial
trouble, being forced to postpone or cancel essential investment and fleet
replacement projects. Perhaps he should have committed only to limiting TfL
fare rises to the rate of inflation?

His plan depended on a stream of Crossrail fares revenue arriving during
2019; instead, there will be very little during his term. The only
Crossrail revenues that TfL will get before 2021 are the fares collected
from Reading.


People need to be a bit clearer in this General Election exactly what it
is they are being promised (bay any party).

Good luck with that!