Tuesday 3rd January was the first day back at work after the Christmas break, for many commuters in Islington.  It was also the first time in 2012 that many will have noticed the huge, inflation-busting fare increases imposed on them by the Conservative Mayor of London.

At every train station in Islington –tube, overground and national rail – volunteers from Islington Labour were out in force on 3rd of Jan to remind commuters of these fare hikes, and to explain the alternative offered by Labour’s Ken Livingstone.  You can see some of the photos here.  The first shows local MP Emily Thornberry at Angel Station with a group of local volunteers.  The second is of Cllr Catherine West, Labour Leader of Islington Council at Archway and the third Jennette Arnold AM, the local representative on the Greater London Assembly.

Out of touch

The Conservative Mayor of London is desperately out of touch with ordinary Londoners.  Last year he caused outrage by saying that TFL fare cuts were “the last thing Londoners want or deserve”. 

There are just 44,000 registered vehicles in Islington, by some distance the lowest number of any Borough in the capital, and less than half of 92,500 average figure for a London Borough.  The rise in train, tube and bus fares therefore has a uniquely damaging impact on our local communities.

We don’t just deserve a fare cut, we desperately need one.

The Conservative Mayor of London has deliberately chosen to make ordinary Londoners, often on very low incomes, bear a heavy financial burden.  Whilst almost doubling the number of his advisors who earn over £100,000 a year and embarking on a series of vanity projects – including a cable car and a pontoon to go over the Thames – he has hiked bus, tube and train fares above inflation for the fourth year running. He has introduced four year average fares increases amounting to 33% – hugely above the inflation rate of 13.9% over the same period.  

Hike in the cost of living

Unsurprisingly people in Islington are angry about this.  Their opposition to the planned rises forced the Mayor’s Tory pal, Chancellor George Osborne to act.  In last year’s Autumn Statement Osborne bunged the Mayor £136 million of taxpayer’s money to apparently keep fares low. 

Despite receiving this unprecedented sum, the Mayor’s 2012 fare’s package will still see fares rise above the rate of inflation by an average of 5.6%.  Although being billed as “holding down fares”, this amended package still represents a huge rise in the cost of living for ordinary Londoners – the cost of a single bus fare using Oyster has still risen by 50% – from 90p in 2008 to £1.35 in 2012.  The affect of this is to hit hard-pressed commuters in Islington to the tune of £216 per year.

There is no light at the end of the tunnel for commuters. The money from the Chancellor is only for next year’s fares package, so from 2013 the increase is expected to return to the Mayor’s RPI + 2% formula, meaning fares will increase by over 7% a year for the rest of the Tory Mayor’s term, were he to be re-elected.

The Alternative

Fortunately, there is an alternative on offer for people in Islington.  Labour’s Mayoral candidate, Ken Livingstone, has promised to rip up the Mayor’s high fare policy and introduce a “Fair Fares” policy:

  • In Autumn 2012 he would cut fares by 7%, wiping out the steep fare increases planned by the Tory Mayor for January and taking fares back to at least 2011 levels.
  • Additionally cutting bus fares from £1.35 to £1.20, an 11% cut of particular benefit to people in Islington.
  • Fares would be frozen in 2013 and raises limit to the cost of inflation thereafter, consigning the Tory Mayor’s annual inflation-busting rises to the dustbin of history.
  • This package would be funded from TFL’s operating surplus which in the last year alone, the unplanned operating surplus was £728m.

This is what next year’s Mayoral elections are really about. 

Do hard-pressed families Islington deserve twenty years of staggering above inflation fares increases, rocketing the cost of living? 

Or do they deserve to get some money back in the pockets through Ken’s fair fares package?