Mayoral race intensifies as London faces latest Boris Johnson fares hike

London bus passengers. Photograph: David Levene for the Guardian

Ken Livingstone at Comment is Free:

Labour will make this [mayoral] election about a real alternative. Central to that is fares. The Tories are committed to raising fares above inflation for years to come. To tax so hard in this way when household finances are under such pressure is shameful. So I will introduce an emergency fares package in October that will wipe out this January's rise, with a 7% cut. I will freeze fares throughout 2013 and then ensure they rise overall by no more than inflation after that. On the issue of fares it will be a referendum on the Tories' rising prices.

Straws in the wind suggest this campaign is making some sort of mark: the Evening Standard, which strikes me as being pretty sweet on the Tory mayor, has admired it; Boris's campaign and its Ken-hating media associates are bashing it bitterly.

Fares are bedrock and bread-and-butter in most Londoners' lives and Team Ken has devised a policy that grabs attention, defines a sharp difference with its main opponent and serves as a flagship for the broader Livingstone campaign theme of protecting "ordinary Londoners" from the effects of government policy. By defining the election as a referendum on the Tories, Ken breaks with his past in binding himself closely to Labour, which as a party has been doing far better in opinion polls of Londoners than Ken himself has. Note too that the fares rise is demeaned as a "tax."

Londoners returning to work tomorrow will encounter "Fare Deal" activists at transport hubs, though Boris's latest hikes come into effect today, in his continuing absence on holiday. The full 2012 tariff board can be perused here and compared with the 2011 package here. A monthly travelcard covering zones 1 to 6 has gone up from ?193.60 to ?205.10, and an annual one from ?2,016 to ?2,136. A single bus fare is up from ?1.30 to ?1.35.

Ken has pledged a 7% cut in October should he win in May. This would apply to the new package, not the 2011 one. Were such a reduction made exactly and evenly across the board, that zone 1 to 6 monthly travelcard would come back down from ?205.10 to ?190.74, and the annual one from ?2,136 to ?1,986.48 according to my pocket calculator. In reality, the 7% cut would be an average and individual prices would be rounded to nearby tidy multiples, but you're getting the idea. As well as reversing the 2012 hikes they'd undercut the 2011 package by small amounts. Ken has made a specific pledge on the single bus fare, saying it would come down to ?1.20. It was 90 pence when Boris came to power four years ago.

Boris's fares policy has come under renewed attack from Brian Paddick for the Liberal Democrats too. He's emphasised that it's Boris's fourth inflation-plus increase in a row and singles out bus fares for particular scorn, as buses are the public transport mode most used by the low paid. Interestingly, he deploys the word "shameful," just as Ken does. Caroline Pidgeon, the Lib Dem transport spokesperson on the London Assembly and the party's deputy mayoral candidate, proposes "targeted measures" to help those on the lowest incomes, including cheaper "early bird" fares and a one-hour bus pass - a policy she's championed some time.

The Green Party's mayoral candidate and London Assembly member Jenny Jones has been taken a more nuanced line on fares. In December, when Ken announced his 7% pledged, she told Mayorwatch that she was, "Pleased fare decreases are being discussed," but was also "concerned that Ken Livingstone isn't able to fund his proposals on a sustained basis." She said that fares decreases, "Must be financed with credible, alternative income that ensures the burden shifts towards more polluting traffic away from public transport users."

Her remarks effectively anticipated publication of Professor John Whitelegg's Green-commissioned report on a possible Londonwide pay-as-you-go road-pricing system that could bring in at least ?1 billion a year. It could be that the Green candidate will offer the boldest vision for addressing London's transport problems, largely by linking them very directly to environmental issues.

Boris has been notably conservative in this respect. Tomorrow will see his introduction of phase 3 of London Low Emission Zone, which requires vans and minibuses entering it to comply with EU pollution rules or pay a daily fine. Transport for London's press release is headed "Mayor hails new measures in 2012 to deliver cleaner air for London," but in fact Boris has delayed bringing in these measures by 15 months. Today, he claims they are a triumph, but last April he complained that they were being "imposed" on the capital by the European Commission.

Update, 09:35 Jenny Jones has sent me a comment in direct response to today's fares increases:

These rises show the Mayor's inexperience in balancing the books for Londoners. It's not only about money, it's also our quality of life. He's hurting everyone, but mostly the low paid who already struggle to pay the high cost of public transport to get to work. Plus the rises mean that using cars becomes more viable and that's worse for air pollution, congestion and road danger.

Thanks for that.

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/davehillblog/2012/jan/02/boris-johnson-attacked-over-2012-fares-increase

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