Green Party Transport speaker, Darren Johnson said:
“The Government is happy to pay for road schemes like widening the M25, but expects Londoners to find money for major public transport expansion in the capital. The Greens welcome the Mayor’s plans to expand public transport, but we don’t agree with bus fares going up to finance a six lane motorway bridge in east London.”
Transport expert, Professor Tony Travers of the London Schools of Economics, has estimated that the Mayor will have to borrow around £3bn to finance the three big projects he wants to complete and the interest payments of about £250m a year would represent a 2-3% per year above inflation on existing fares. The Mayor’s only alternative to financing the projects through fare rises, would be increasing the council tax, but he is already proposing a £20 a year increase to pay for the Olympics.
The Greens are worried that year on year fare rises will reverse all the environmental benefits of traffic reduction and dramatic increases in bus usage, as people see cars as a relatively cheaper option. They have called on the London Mayor to match any fares increase with higher congestion charges and to double the charge for bigger engined vehicles, such as four by fours. This would also help to fill the funding gap.
London Assembly Member, Jenny Jones, said:
“The reason we are having fare rises in London is that Government is spending billions of pounds on widening motorways and building new roads, rather than backing public transport. London’s successful expansion of the buses has shown that we can get people out of their cars if there is an efficient, fairly cheap alternative. Projects like the widening of the M25 show how the Government is caving into the motoring lobby. It means fresh tarmac for the countryside and higher fares for Londoners.”
“The Government not only gave London around half a billion a year less than we needed for buses, cycling and road safety, it also gave us the whole bill for extending the East London Line and the DLR in time for the Olympics. The next big decision is how much Londoners should be paying for Crossrail, which is a major national scheme.”
ENDS
Notes to Editors – Darren Johnson, has previously welcomed the Mayor’s statement that he would consider higher charges for 4*4 vehicles entering central London.
Ken Livingstone recently acknowledged on Radio London that: “above inflation increases in fares” would be needed to “carry out the investment programme necessary to transform the city’s transport system.”