Tube fares will rise by double the rate of inflation next year – but London bus fares will be frozen at £1.75.Mayor Sadiq Khan said the cost of travelling on the London Underground, London Overground and Elizabeth line would increase by an average of 4.6 per cent from March 2025.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Tube fares will rise next year by 4.6%, but in better news, bus fares will be frozen and will remain the cheapest in the UK.
00:10The 2025 fares package has just been announced by the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan.
00:15It means that essentially fares on the London Underground, the London Overground and the Elizabeth Line will rise by twice the current rate of inflation.
00:25But bus fares will remain at £1.75, and that includes the hopper fare, which allows passengers to change between buses all within an hour period.
00:35Why have you chosen to increase tube fares by the figure of 4.6%?
00:40What the government said to us was, look, we're doubling almost the amount of cabinet support you're receiving in 2025, 2026.
00:46There's a prospect now of, for the first time in my mayoralty, a decent long-term multi-year deal.
00:54But if it's the case that you don't raise the fares by the national increase, you have to feel the difference.
00:58Did you feel that was a threat or an order?
01:00It's not a threat or an order. It's the reality of, if we don't have money coming in from revenue from fares, a gap in terms of capital becomes bigger.
01:08The price for us is a long-term capital deal to renew, maintain and grow public transport.
01:13Just think about the possibility, new trains on the Piccadilly line, new trains on the Docklands Light railway.
01:20We've got a new signalling, really important on the Central line, the District line, the Vashmalton line.
01:26Also the prospect of a deal being extended to Thames View, Bakerley line extension south being unlocked, West London Orbital.
01:34All this only possible by a long-term capital deal.
01:38That's really important for London because our city's been neglected of capital investment for the last few years because of the Tory government.
01:44These fares increases will bring in an extra £211 million to TfL's coffers over the next year.
01:50Sadiq Khan denies that he's been forced to increase the fares by the government, although the Transport Secretary at the time, Louise Haig,
01:57did say a couple of months ago that she expected the mayor to follow the increase in national rail fares with a similar increase in his own train and tube fares.
02:06And that's exactly what he's done.
02:08The Department for Transport said today that in their view you were not forced to increase tube fares.
02:16I'm glad they've agreed with me.
02:17By the same as the national rail fares. Is that a fair reading, that it was not an order?
02:23There's no threats made from the DFT, no orders made from this brilliant new government.
02:29It's the reality of we've got less money coming in from revenue and there's a gap between revenue and capital.
02:35What this brilliant government's done is almost doubled the capital investment we received for 2025, 2026.
02:40We're getting almost £500 million pounds. Last year we received £250 million pounds.
02:44But also the prospect of a multi-year, long-term capital deal, which I'm really excited about.
02:50Do you feel there's any rigging in the actual tube and train increase that you're saying?
02:56I think the compromise would have been if you freeze tube fares, it means less money coming in for us to invest in capital.
03:05It could also mean less money being generated from the centre in terms of capital.
03:09The deal announced today to London is a very simple deal.
03:13Freeze bus fares, poorest Londoners use buses, they'll really appreciate this.
03:16Those in outer London use buses more, they'll appreciate this.
03:19Freeze tram fares, really important to the community in Croydon.
03:22Keep the unlimited hopper. Everyone in London benefits from that.
03:25Londoners have seen the benefits of Superloop One.
03:28We can now invest in Superloop Two, in the Baker Loop, in more buses in outer London.
03:34And so Londoners know, you know, my experience over the last eight years, where I can freeze fares, I will do so.
03:39Evidence today by bus and tram, five of the last eight years, for all fares across to TfL.
03:44The real prize there for us is the long-term multi-year capital deal. It's really exciting.
03:48These new fares will come into force on March 2nd next year.
03:52They will add 10p to a pay-as-you-go single tube journey in Zone 1.
03:57If you're using a travel card, that will increase by 4.6%.
04:01And also the cap on the number of journeys you can make for the pay-as-you-go cap,
04:06kicks in each day or each week, will also increase by around 4.6%.