The mayor of London has refused to commit himself to plans to address a potential funding shortfall in the capital’s bus subsidy.
A recent review by KPMG, commissioned by the mayor and Transport for London, made four recommendations for funding bus subsidy in the event that government contributions were insufficient.
But Boris Johnson said that, although the report was a valuable piece of work, ‘it doesn’t mean we need to follow its recommendations’, which include increasing fares; reducing the coverage of the network; cancelling or deferring committed infrastructure projects; and reducing the network quality standard.
‘These options assume there will be a cut in subsidies – I’m not operating with that assumption,’ the mayor told London Assembly members this week.
Jenny Jones, Green Party AM, said it was ‘mad’ to spend so much money – tens of thousands of pounds – on a report, and completely dismiss its recommendations.
The mayor also refused to be drawn on whether he would reduce bus fares by conforming to the Retail Price Index (RPI)+1% formula.
‘Bus fares will remain extremely affordable and competitive, but it would be wrong to show our thinking now,’ he said.
But when asked whether Londoners could assume a fare rise, Mr Johnson did not deny it. ‘You expect bus passengers to pick up the slack and you will drive them off buses and into cars,’ Ms Jones replied. However, the mayor pledged not to cut essential services and scale back infrastructure projects.
Mr Johnson said he would look into evidence of a reduction in fare evasion on the 521 and 507 services, where the bendy bus had been replaced. He said fare evasion cost £8m a year on bendy buses, but Val Shawcross, Labour AM, said the replacement buses would not solve the problem because passengers could still get on at the back of the bus.
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