please empty your brain below
If you're patient enough, you can still get from Heathrow to Upminster for £1.70 - which even if it's 13% more than the last four years is still a bloody bargain.

martin | 17.01.21 - 7:24 a.m. | #

Buses are always cheaper than the tube if you are a 'senior citizen'. But yes the £1.50, now £1.70 outer London fare is a bargain by any means. When I was doing the London Loop, usually with a rail travel card, I called it the Zone 6 walk and used my travel card to its limit.

davews | 17.01.21 - 9:03 a.m. | #

Crunching the numbers, the cumulative effect of the annual fares increases over the past ten years is 25%, compared with RPI which has gone up 29% or CPI which has gone up 21%.

timbo | 17.01.21 - 9:06 a.m. | #

Considering the lost revenue effects of covid *and* the political heat around the Mayor holding down fares for several years (which, pre-covid, was leading to some anxiety about steep increases this year) I am impressed that these rises are as gentle as they are, especially the 5p increment on a bus journey. Perhaps a staged approach with more rises once London's economy is on a surer foot.

£1.70 is still very reasonable for a three-zone suburban trip, even on arterial lines e.g. Surrey Quays to Norwood Junction, Stratford to Loughton, etc etc.

Nico | 17.01.21 - 10:07 a.m. | #

I wonder if TfL will eventually create a surcharged PAYG tube fare for the Heathrow Stations to grab extra revenue from occasion travellers to the airport, maybe with a short journey discount for nearest one/two stations (at the risk of creating a fare loophole). But not in season tickets and discounted/compensated in weekly caps on some criteria.

Airport transport surcharges are fairly common around the world.

MilesT | 17.01.21 - 10:26 a.m. | #

London bus fares are still incredibly cheap, ditto the off peak tube fares outside Zone 1,

A major benefit of Oyster and contactless is that you can have fiddly fares, rather than round numbers. Imagine trying to pay £1.55 in cash on a bus...

Mikey C | 17.01.21 - 11:04 a.m. | #

I wonder how much of the income from road charges (congestion charges etc.) has been used to keep the fares lower than expected. I know that the Mayor has said that the free child travel will continue, and I assume that the 60+ Oyster will as well, funded by the road charges.

rogmi | 17.01.21 - 12:01 p.m. | #

Four off-peak tube journeys of similar length:

• Whitechapel - Stratford £1.50
• Camden Town - Golders Green £1.60
• Richmond - Stamford Brook £1.70
• Paddington - Farringdon £2.40

diamond geezer | Homepage | 17.01.21 - 12:32 p.m. | #

In comparison, the bus fares in many other places are a lot more expensive, especially for single journeys (e.g. Gt Yarmouth £2.20 for a short journey), but this may be offset by an all-day ticket (£4.20 compared to £4.50 cap). However, it can be very difficult to compare places with bigger cities where people’s journey needs may be a lot different.

rogmi | 17.01.21 - 12:55 p.m. | #

When the history of the 21st century global heating disaster comes to be written, the craziness of charging /anything at all/ for public transport will play a major part. Let alone putting fares up steadily in a doomed attempt to make it "pay its way".

Malcolm of Kent | 17.01.21 - 12:57 p.m. | #

"Only 1% of tube fares are cash" (or similar)... What's that in real numbers? Percentages conceal who really pays / suffers / gets away with something.

Joel | 17.01.21 - 1:32 p.m. | #

I haven't lived/worked in London for a long time, and now when I visit I either use my ENCTS card or Thameslink NR through to Gatwick. So the references to cash fares bamboozle me: weren't the cash machines all removed years ago?

dg writes: No.

(And how, as a non-London resident, could I get an Oyster anyway?)

dg writes: See here.

Ian | 17.01.21 - 4:49 p.m. | #

The impact of the pandemic on fare revenue has been much less than I thought, or does "decimated" no longer mean "reduced by 10%"?

...and DG, aided and abetted by the TfL website you've overcomplicated getting an Oyster card for Ian. You can just pick one up at newsagents all over London or from ticket machines at all Underground stations.

A | 17.01.21 - 8:41 p.m. | #

Thanks DG and A. I had forgotten that a contactless card can be used in place of an Oyster - and doesn't cost £5 upfront.

Ian | 17.01.21 - 9:20 p.m. | #

Now just need to make sure I don't have an orphaned 5p on my Oyster card (like I've had for the past five years) when bus fares go up to £1.60 next year... or £3 in the unlikely event that Shaun Bailey wins.

tops | 17.01.21 - 10:41 p.m. | #

Ian: The initial £5 cost is now transformed into balance on the card's first anniversary.

Jan | 18.01.21 - 12:15 a.m. | #

A microscopic virus? It's smaller than that: about 100 nm compared to say 500 nm for visible light. Perhaps an electron-microscopic virus.

dg writes: 120 nm, sorry.

Peter | 18.01.21 - 9:21 p.m. | #











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