George Osborne has called for falling oil prices to translate to lower petrol pump and air fare costs however public transport users are unlikely to benefit.
The chancellor tweeted the comments in response to news that the price of Brent Crude oil fell to around the $50 mark yesterday at one point even dipping below $50 a barrel for the first time since May 2009.
‘Oil price was $53 pbl last night - lowest in 5yrs. Vital this is passed on to families at petrol pumps, through utility bills and air fares,’ the chancellor tweeted.
Supermarkets have responded to the falling prices with Tesco, Morrisons, Sainsbury's and Asda cutting prices by 2p a litre on both petrol and diesel - bringing petrol close to £1 a litre.
However the UK’s largest transport authority Transport for London told Transport Network that its fares are not linked to petrol prices in any way and so would not respond to falling or rising prices.
‘A single adult bus fare with Oyster or contactless payment is priced at a flat rate of £1.50 regardless of if you go two stops or ten, so regardless of how much petrol you use’ a spokeswoman said.
In November Transport Network reported that bus and rail fares would not be reduced to reflect falling fuel prices after speaking to major operators such as Stagecoach and Arriva who said fare prices were not greatly influenced by oil costs rather staffing and re-investment needs.
