Train Fares Set To Rise For The Fourth Year, Are The Olympics To Blame?

Boris Johnson has announced that travel costs on London's transport network are set to rise by 8% next January, for the fourth consecutive year!

The Mayor's decision means that as from next year the cost of taking a bus, tram or DLR train with on Oyster pay-as-you-go will rise from by 10p to £1.40 and a day bus pass goes up to £4.20. Oyster pay-as-you-go tube fares will rise to up to 30p, taking the price of a single journey through one zone  to £2 and two zones to £2.70 at peak times, cash fares will also go up. People in outer London face the biggest increases with the cost of an annual travelcard zones 1-6 up by £160 to £2,176!

Alexandra Woodsworth from the Campaign for Better Transport said: 'Affordable rail travel is vital for passengers, for the environment and for our workforce.'

Understandably commuters are angered by the increases, campaigners protested at London's Waterloo station about the price rises, which the Mayor insists are 'needed for the overhaul of the transport system in the run up to the Olympics'.

Olympics, Olympics, Olympics, it's all starting to sound a bit like a convenient crutch, it seems now all frustratingly disrupting upgrades, redevelopments, engineering and maintenance work is being accredited to the Olympics, one would have hoped that if London had been serious about their Olympic bid and updating the chaos that is the current London transport network, the powers that be might have put some kind of contingency fund into plan a long time ago...Apparently not.

I hope that with the Olympics just around the corner, it wont be long before improvements to the London transport network that we've been contributing to for years now, actually start taking shape and generating faster, cleaner, more spacious and ultimately better quality commuting around the capital...or else I think we should demand a refund!

Photo: Wootang01