The four-month extension of the bus fare freeze, alongside the Weekend Hopper Fare summer promotion, provides some welcome ongoing relief for Londoners from the cost-of-living crisis. And it is good that TfL is continuing to roll out existing commitments to improve the experience of travelling by bus.
But the inflation-busting increase in bus fares due in November – if it happens – will be hard to take for passengers on lower incomes who depend on this form of transport, particularly when they are seeing the slowest ever bus speeds across the network or, in some cases, reduced service frequencies on their routes.
TfL faces an admittedly tough challenge in containing the level of subsidy supporting its bus operations, while at the same time providing attractive services which reverse the 25 percent fall in bus passenger numbers from their high point over a decade ago. It remains to be seen whether TfL’s strategy will succeed.
