On Sep 10, 10:51*am, wrote:
On Thu, 10 Sep 2009 10:34:40 +0100

"Tim Fenton" wrote:
Dave Hill's London Blog concludes so, from recent comments and articles:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/davehil...oris-johnson-l...
c-transport-fares

Or via http://tinyurl.com/m53plb


Boris potentially proving yet again that it is actually possibly to make
Ken Livingstone seem like a forward thinking intellectual in retrospect.
How many more years until we can vote this buffoon out?

Afraid a forthcoming fare rise is no surprise. There is also the
electoral timetable to consider, as Paul C has pointed out in the past
- significant fare rises in January 2011 or 2012 will be too close to
the May 2012 Mayoral election.

Dave Hill refers to Boris saying "Why shouldn't I save up the good
news?" when pressed on the issue during yesterday's Mayor's Question
Time. I dare say the "good news" that Boris is keen to announce is
that agreement has finally been reached with the mainline TOCs that
Oyster Pay-as-you-go will be accepted across all National Rail routes
in London (though it's far from clear that the final deal has yet been
signed - last minute wrangling is quite possible) - the Mayor will
make a massive fanfare of this, and the hope will presumably be that
it takes the limelight whilst the fare rises are shoved backstage.

P.S. Here's the link to Walmar's Evening Standard article on the topic
(referred to by Dave Hill):
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standa...ils/article.do