FactCheck: cheaper London transport?
Updated on 10 April 2008
Mayor Ken Livingstone boasts of cheaper buses and only marginally more expensive tube fares. His rivals cry foul. Who's right?
The claim
"Average bus fares in London in real inflation adjusted terms are 9 per cent lower than they were in 2000 and average tube fares are only 1.4 per cent higher in real inflation adjusted terms after seven years."
Ken Livingstone, transport manifesto, March 2008
The background
Car ownership is lower in London than in other parts of the country, and around 10 million people a day fight their way across the capital by bus or tube.
Getting more people using public transport scores big political brownie points, both in environmental terms, and for reducing traffic congestion.
To this end, part of Ken Livingstone's strategy as mayor of London has been to keep headline fares low or, in the case of buses, lower than they were when he came to power.
Tube fares have risen, he reckons - but only slightly above the rate of inflation.
But is this really the case? You'd be forgiven for thinking otherwise, if you listened to some of the claims made by Livingstone's rivals.
In a BBC Newsnight debate on Tuesday night, Tory candidate Boris Johnson accused Livingstone of breaking a promise to hold tube and bus fares, saying that they have in fact doubled.
And Lib Dem contender Brian Paddick claimed last month that passengers pay £40 a mile to use the tube - a staggering sum that dwarfs other rail or plane prices.
(Admittedly, Paddick's dig was based on one not-entirely-representative tenth of a mile journey, between zone one's tube stops Embankment and Charing Cross.
This trip is made by only 19 people a day although, in theory, a hapless passenger could end up getting stung for the single cash fare of £4 for the privilege.)
So what's really happened under Livingstone? Are Londoners paying more or less for their travel?
The analysis
Fares in London are a tricky business; the public guide to fares and tickets stretches to 33 pages.
As well as different types of single trip fares, weekly, annual or monthly travel cards, plus bus-only season tickets and group day tickets, there are different fares for different payment methods, on and off peak prices and different pricing zones (of which the central is the priciest).
Let's look at the overall picture first.
In the years before Ken Livingstone came to power, bus and tube fares rose gradually in real terms.
On taking in office in 2000, the mayor stuck to a manifesto pledge to freeze bus fares - meaning they fell in real terms - and raising tube fares in line with inflation.
According to Transport for London data, based on the average fare paid, real-terms bus fares in London decreased by 11.6 per cent from 2000-01 to 2006-07. Real-terms underground fares went up by 4 per cent.
One of the mayor's big innovations - and a further complication when it comes to pricing - is the introduction of the Oyster smart-card.
Let's cross check it another way: the average fare per kilometre travelled.
Compared to 2006/07 prices, a bus journey cost 16.3p per km in 2000/01. In 2003/04, it had dropped to just 13.1p. In 2006/07, the cost had crept up again, to 14.3p - though it was down slightly on the previous year, and still a decrease on the fare when Livingstone came to power.
Tube journeys cost, in today's money, 17.7p per kilometre in 2000/01. The figure tottered around the 17 to 18p mark until 2005/06, and then went up to 18.5p in 2006/07. So an increase to the tune of 4.5 per cent.
Now let's look at a few individual fares.
One of the mayor's big innovations - and a further complication when it comes to pricing - is the introduction of the Oyster smart-card. It stores season tickets or can be loaded with pre-paid cash, then touched on the bus or tube.
But to encourage people to use it, cash fares have rocketed up.
A couple of prime examples: in 2004, a single bus ticket paid for with cash cost £1. Last year, it went up from £1.50 to £2. So that's a doubling in cold, hard pound coin terms in just three years.
A single cash tube fare cost £2 in 2005; in 2006, £3. Now, it's £4 - which gives rise to the £40 mile mentioned by Brian Paddick.
But pay for these single tickets with a pre-paid Oyster card, and a bus trip costs just 90p. A single zone one tube fare costs £1.50.
The verdict
On balance, bus and tube fares are pretty similar to when Ken Livingstone took office - although bus fares have seen above-inflation increases in recent years.
It's a different picture for those who pay in cash, however. This is a smaller number of people, admittedly: just over 3 per cent of tube journeys and two per cent of bus journeys.
But for these people - who may be tourists unfamiliar with the city, or someone on a low income without much money to load onto a card - far from staying the same, some single fares have doubled in the past few years.
FactCheck rating: 2.5
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Every time a FactCheck article is published we'll give it a rating from zero to five.
The lower end of the scale indicates that the claim in question largerly checks out, while the upper end of the scale suggests misrepresentation, exaggeration, a massaging of statistics and/or language.
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The sources
Ken Livingstone, transport manifesto, March 2008
London Travel Report 2007
TfL Fares Study
Paddick: £40 a mile on the Tube
Your guide to fares and tickets
Tube and bus fares enquiry
New year, new fares
Your view
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