to wonder why London Transport fares have more or less doubled in the past 15 years?

[mothertruck3r]

Just wondering why the costs have gone up so much? What do the extra costs go towards?

Growing up I always heard how technology was going to make life cheaper. Seems the opposite has happened. Everything has got so much more expensive, especially tube and bus travel!

How much money should they get, Creampastry?

My zone 1/2 travel card works out at just over £4 per day if I use it every day of the month which I inevitably do. Plus it's pretty common for me to get the train, overground and bus in the same day so my journeys would definitely cost me more than £4 if I didn't buy a travel card. Having come from Bristol where First Bus charged me £5 a day, I think London transport is a total bargain.

Well firstly, they've not doubled, unless you look at the cost of paying CASH, that has doubled but that's because contactless is the bit that technology has made cheaper.

Bus fares have gone from 1 to 1.50, but against that, they had no transfers before, and now do - so if you need to change buses once, it's cheaper.

Travelcard (zone 1-4) has gone up from 6.80 to 9.30 (again using PAYG cap as the comparison, as that's what's really meaningful if you want the savings from technology) So again nowhere near doubling.

Also travelcards and oysters PAYG have changed where you can go within the cap. So it's not a simple comparison at all. Some people will have increased their costs more than others, some will see a lot less.

London public transport is still very cheap comparitively, because of course the sheer numbers of people using it allowing it be cheaper for everyone.

No tube and train drivers receive what should be average salaries for living and working in London.
It is just that other workers are ridiculously low paid.

I pay around £10 for a one day Zone 1/2/3 travelcard... I don't think there is a £3 daily travelcard for tubes, this is more likely to be a single fare.

It's because service is so great, obviously.

No travel disruption, strikes, signal failures, delays, seats always available.

Personally I'm loving the 2 journeys for £1.50 in London now. Means I can get a bus to the barbers with son and home again for that. Or go to town for a couple of bits and be on th bus home within the hour... makes me rush but I have a baby so I do that anyway.
Was 60p adult fare when I was little. Showing my age. Mum used to make us walk the two miles home cause money was tight and buses were packed. It's a lot nicer now

The 2 journey for £1.50 is actually not such a good deal if you travel more by bus. The minimum charge after the third journey was better.

Chardonnay The cap is still three paid journeys, so 4.50 rather than 3, it's just that you can have more than 3 buses before the cap comes in - for people who take 2 buses to work, and 2 home, that would've been three paid journeys, it's now only two. The deal there is unchanged isn't it?

There still is a cap after the third paid for bus journey. It's just that if you make 2 journeys within an hour, you're not charged for the second. My journey involving 4 buses (2 there, 2 back) used to cost £4.50, it now costs £3.00, but if I go out the same evening, it costs me an extra £1.50 to go out and a free ride back (capped at £4.50) whereas if I'd done that before, both evening journeys would have been free as I would have already paid the capped amount.

But it is really expensive. Recently had s court case to get to and just could not afford to go some days because of the price if zone 1-4 travel first thing in the morning. Feel so sorry for people who have to commute everyday, try that on minimum wage, its hundreds of pounds to buy a travel card for a year. And that's the cheapest way if doing it. Fine if you are just visiting London for the day, but try living here.

Of not if.

That's what I mean.
Six of one, half a dog zen of the other.

The new one hour cap doesn't really work for me, but I suppose it works for others.

I live less than ten miles outside of Inverness. It costs me £4.80 to get into the centre and there is one bus every hour to two hours. Try doing that return daily for work. I won't even get started on the costs and travel times to get to the nearest town.

Works for me as it means it now costs me £1.50 less to get 2 (quick) buses into town rather than the 1 that goes the long way including 2 main roads that are always jammed with traffic. Saves 20 mins each way in rush hour too

It will get more expensive - currently tfl gets £591m subsidy for running costs from the govt - to go by 2018.
This compares to £39m for the rest of the country.

I've lived in five different capital cities with underground networks. London is by far the most expensive - but it's also by far the cleanest, best staffed, safest and most extensive. Sure the central line in rush hour during the summer is beyond grim, but really on the whole pretty amazing. Don't begrudge the cost.

My next two preferred networks are Tokyo and New Delhi.

cream have you any idea how much it costs to run an underground rail network? How much it costs to lease a single tube train?

Paying drivers a decent salary is a tiny fraction of a percent of the overall operating costs of TfL. And why shouldn't skilled, safety critical jobs for working class people be decently rewarded?

Because tube and train drivers get paid stupidly high salaries

Oh really? Given that it's actually not an easy job and a drop in the ocean compared to most fat cats, I suggest that they don't get paid too much.

You should do some research and form an opinion based on facts. E.g. Check out the rates of pay for many many over paid executives. Puts train drivers in the shade.

when people talk about tube driver salaries they aren't comparing them to high paid executives but to other highly skilled professional jobs that don't command such a high wage. Think nurse, teacher, social worker etc.
I won't lie I only learned how much tube drivers got this year and yes to me, a nurse, it does seem a lot for that job. However it isn't a race to the bottom.

I won't lie I only learned how much tube drivers got this year and yes to me, a nurse, it does seem a lot for that job. However it isn't a race to the bottom

I agree, it isn't a race to the bottom. It's probably no coincidence that tube and train drivers have decent salaries because they're protected by unions in a way that many other skilled professions are not. Yes teachers and nurses etc do have unions but I think the transport ones are probably more effective at mobilising the work force.

Much more buses (we even have a night bus here in zone 5), new and more Underground trains, and subsidy from Government for operations being reduced. All must have contributed.

Fares went up the most under Boris Johnson's time as Mayor. The loss making cycle hire scheme and the expensive buses with three doors must have increased costs.

Transport ones are more effective because they stop people travelling. Tube driving is not a skilled job, many tube lines are fully automated, in the UK including Docklands light railway. It would enable cheaper networks and a full night service.