About 40 per cent of journeys on London’s public transport network will be more expensive due to the limited impact of Mayor Sadiq Khan’s “fares freeze”, it can be revealed.It means that Transport for London’s income from fares will increase by up to £75m over the next 12 months, if travel returns to pre-pandemic levels – the bulk from more expensive Tube journeys.Mr Khan’s partial fares freeze – which leaves the cost of pay-as-you-go journeys on the Tube, London buses, the London Overground, Elizabeth line, DLR and Croydon tram unchanged until March next year – came into effect on Sunday.But because the “cap” on the cost of multiple pay-as-you-go journeys has increased, alongside a 4.9 per cent average increase in Travelcards, many passengers will end up paying more.
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00:00 [PA] Use the front left of the platform to catch passengers.
00:04 Sadiq Khan's Tupin bus fares freeze has come into force,
00:10 but the evening standard can reveal that only about 60% of passengers are likely to benefit.
00:16 So Londoners know my track record when it comes to freezing fares.
00:19 I want to keep them as low as possible to help Londoners.
00:22 I'm really pleased for the fifth time I can freeze fares.
00:25 The short answer is yeah, I want to keep the fares as low as possible.
00:28 In the 80s before I became mayor, they went up by more than 42%.
00:32 I know, had we not frozen fares over the course of the last eight years,
00:36 they'd be 21% higher.
00:38 So the bus fare today is £1.75, but for my policies they'd be £2.
00:42 So that's the difference a Labour mayor can make.
00:45 Now why is it that not all passengers will benefit from the mayor's fare freeze?
00:49 Well the reason is that it only applies to TfL fares.
00:53 The Tube, the bus, the Overground, the Elizabeth Line DLR and the Croydon Tram.
00:59 It does not apply to the cost of travel cards because they also include National Rail services.
01:06 The other factor is that the cap on pay-as-you-go fares, which are the fares that the mayor has frozen,
01:12 the cap itself will increase either weekly or daily.
01:16 So it could be that if you make multiple journeys, you'll end up paying more.
01:20 I think when people who aren't benefiting from the fares freeze come into London today,
01:24 what they'll realise is the difference me being in charge of those commuter trains can make.
01:29 If I was in charge of those trains as was originally promised,
01:32 they'd also benefit from the fares freeze.
01:35 There's two big concerns I've got.
01:37 One is those commuter trains that still aren't under TfL control.
01:40 If they were under our control, there'd be better service, more regular,
01:43 but also they wouldn't have the disruption they currently have and then have fares frozen.
01:47 But secondly, I don't understand why the government can't negotiate a fares freeze
01:51 with these privatised train operating companies.
01:54 Their fares have gone up by almost 5%, 4.9%.
01:57 We've frozen TfL fares. It's unfair.
01:59 Make no mistake, this policy should benefit most passengers, if not all.
02:04 Sadiq Khan has frozen his fares to try and ease the cost of living crisis for Londoners.
02:10 The other thing he hopes, of course, is it will help him win a third term.
02:14 The Mayoral elections are coming up on 2 May.
02:17 me.
02:19 [BLANK_AUDIO]