The fares freeze on London’s buses and trams ends this month.
Going up: London’s tram and bus fares are set to rise by 5.7% on November 1
From November 1, the adult bus and tram fare, including the Hopper fare, will increase by 10p from £1.75 to £1.85, Transport for London confirmed in a statement this morning.
Fares for eligible concession card holders will increase by 5p. The daily bus and tram cap will increase by 30p to £5.55.
Tube and rail caps, along with Travelcards, will remain unchanged until March 2027.
The increase equates to a 5.7% rise in fares, almost double the rate of inflation of 3.1%.
“We remain committed to ensuring that London’s public transport network is both affordable and accessible for all Londoners,” said the announcement from Transport for London this morning.
“Revenue generated from fares plays a vital role in supporting the continued operation, maintenance and improvement of services across the capital, helping us to deliver a safe, reliable and sustainable transport network for the future.”
This is the first increase in London’s bus and tram fares since 2023.
After his predecessor, Boris Johnson, ended London’s transport subsidies received from central government, Mayor Khan’s fare freezes from 2016 to 2021 were seen by some commentators as contributing to the transport authority’s financial predicament, when covid saw a near-complete collapse of fare income. Those first fare freezes cost around £640million over four years.
In July, when the fare increase was trailed, travel watchdog London TravelWatch said that “the inflation-busting increase… will be hard to take for passengers on lower incomes who depend on this form of transport, particularly when they are seeing the slowest ever bus speeds across the network or, in some cases, reduced service frequencies on their routes.
“TfL faces an admittedly tough challenge in containing the level of subsidy supporting its bus operations, while at the same time providing attractive services which reverse the 25% fall in bus passenger numbers from their high point over a decade ago.
“It remains to be seen whether TfL’s strategy will succeed.”
For more information ,visit TfL’s bus and tram fares page.
Read more: Passengers suffering as tram closures up by 68% in a year
Read more: Half tram network shut down for another two weeks’ works
Read more: What might have been: how Croydon Trams should have grown
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Tram fare increase won’t kick in for those on the eastern part of the network for the first week because there are no trams east of East Croydon until 7th November, because they are doing engineering works (again) !
TfL’s fare increase from £1.75 to £1.85 does indeed represent a 5.7% increase. However, because it is the first rise since March 2023, and the inflation rate over that three-and-a-half-year period was over 12%, the price of a bus and/or tram journey has actually decreased in real terms. That won’t stop snobby / racist / Islamophobic Khan bashers from slagging him off