London Mayor Sadiq Khan has confirmed he’ll be fulfilling a promise he made during this year’s mayoral election race. Starting January 2017 to 2020, fares across the Transport for London network will be frozen.
Mr. Khan said the freeze would help the average household save £200 over the next four years.
The fares freeze which is expected to cost £640m will not apply to travelcards, monthly Oyster cards or daily caps. These can be used on services provided by other operators.
True to the mayor’s promise that Londoners "won't pay a penny more for their travel in 2020 than they do today," bus and tram tickets, Pay As You Go tube journeys, Docklands Light Railway and TfL services as well as bike hire charges will all be frozen until 2020.
However, TfL will have no option but to makebudget cuts of at least £591m by 2018 in a bid to absorb the cost of the fares freeze, a point at which it will lose its government operational grant.
Mr. Khan has also commenced a review of TfL’s management structure, promising to reduce agency staff, review projects and freeze top managers’ salaries to cut on expenditure, thus making savings.
He also urged the government to follow suit and freeze fares on rail routes into the city, including Southern Railway services.
Mayor Khan said: "After years of huge fare increases for London passengers, I'm delighted to be formally announcing our plans to freeze TfL fares across London's transport network.
"Before taking office I was determined to ensure we took significant action to make public transport more affordable and we've already taken major steps through the introduction of the Hopper ticket that in just two months has saved Londoners money on over 10 million bus journeys."
