Hard truth is mayor faces tough decisions
By John Biggs
Londoners face an above inflation fares increase from January next year. Bus fares will rise by 12.7 per cent and Tube fares by 3.9 per cent.
Some services will be cut but we don't know which ones yet. The Mayor says he has little choice because of the other pressures he faces.
Is this true?
Fares increase will raise £125million next year but that this is less than the loss to his budget of three projects that he has decided to scrap or defer - the Western extension to the Congestion Charge (to be scrapped, losing income), the last stage of a Low Emission Zone (which will not be introduced as planned but would have raised income as it slowly pushed the most polluting vans off the road), and the replacement of all bendy buses with more smaller buses.
The hard truth is that being Mayor involves tough decisions - a lot of people don't like bendy buses, the congestion charge or having to reduce their exhaust emissions - but there is a cost for those decisions, which this week shows is higher fares for the rest of us.
Without those decisions the fares rise would have been unnecessary.
A Mayor who claims to support low taxes has just ambushed our wallets because of his earlier decisions.
Perhaps this fares decision is a useful education for him on how challenging the decisions of government are. A shame we have to pay for it.
- John Biggs is London Assembly Member, City and East
The only shame is that John Biggs let the LDA run up a whopping £160 million black hole when he was a board member!
This guy now blames Boris. It's your fault that there is not enough money in the pot in the first place!
Boris is only sweeping up Livingstone's mess.
Biggs is an idiot.