On Oct 15, 1:25*pm, "Basil Jet"
wrote:
asdf wrote:
On Thu, 15 Oct 2009 03:04:09 -0700 (PDT), martin wrote:

Full details from TfL at
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloa..._Media_Briefin....

In a nutshell:

- 20% increase in all bus-only fares and tickets
- No increase in price of Travelcard seasons [1]
- PAYG Tube singles ratcheted up by the usual 20p or so [2]
- PAYG Tube caps no longer have a 50p "discount" over the paper ODTC
(i.e. they've gone up by at least 50p - though the new ODTC prices are
not given).

[1] Except the 2-zones-excluding-z1 Travelcard season, whose price
increases to maintain its differential over the Bus Pass season.
[2] Except the z1-4 and z1-6 fares, which see a bigger increase to
firmly reinstate the differentials between them and the z1-3 and z1-5
fares respectively.

I wonder how much those bus fares would have gone up if Boris hadn't
been busy replacing all the bendy buses and inventing a new
Routemaster?

Cynically, I'd say it's mostly irrelevant, as the revenue is not
hypothecated between transport modes. Rather, Boris is sticking firmly
to his Tory principles: of the fares he controls, the middle classes
are most likely to own Travelcard seasons and least likely to use
buses.

That's a rather baffling use of the words "Tory principles"... if Boris
noticed that bus users were being subsidised by Travelcard season holders,
then ending that subsidy would be an application of Tory principles,
regardless of the class of the people using the different tickets. If he
just wanted to make the rich richer and the poor poorer, then he is a Tory
without principles.

Eh? Tory principles = "enrich the wealthy; enrich the middle class
enough that they vote for us; screw the poor". Anyone who attempts to
suggest Tory principles encompass anything else is either a shill or
an idiot.

--
John Band
john at johnband dot org
www.johnband.org