Fare Free London stands in solidarity with other areas of England whose bus fares are now subject to a cap of £3. The rise from the cap of £2 was announced last Monday 28th October, prior to the government’s Autumn Budget statement. The Budget also announced another year of fuel duty freeze: the fourteenth consecutive year that the government has implemented this subsidy for drivers.

As correctly noted by the campaign Possible, quoted in the Independent, “Fuel duty will now be frozen for 15 years, while the cost of public transport has gone up and up each and every year. This is completely the wrong way around, and we need to move to a system which makes the greenest ways of getting around the cheapest and most convenient.”

Fare Free London believes capped fares are a step in the right direction to free public transport, and call on the government to reduce the cap back down to £2, or even further. Campaigners from Better Buses for West Yorkshire were quoted in a BBC News article saying the cap was “incredibly important”. West Yorkshire had the original £2 cap scheme, introduced in September 2022, and the Mayor has agreed to keep it until March 2025.

The cap, which works by adding a government subsidy up to the previous cost of the ticket, is a lifeline to many bus users, who are some of the poorest people in society. London has a £1.75 bus fare cap, which rose to £1.65 in March 2022, and to £1.75 in March 2023. Fare Free London rejects the logic of annual fare rises on public transport, as the cost of low-carbon modes of transport should not increase while the cost of driving is frozen and climate change remains a pressing threat.

6th November 2024.