TfL: Sadiq Khan says Tube and bus fares ‘always’ under review amid changing travel patterns

Tube, tram and bus fares in London may be restructured to reflect changing journey times, Sadiq Khan has said, as he stressed the importance of having “a fair fare system” in the capital.

The question of how Transport for London (TfL) manages the charges across its network so they are reasonably priced while maximising the authority's income was raised in a City Hall committee meeting last week.

During the session Sir Tony Travers, a local government expert who was part of a panel invited to advise on the challenges and constraints of the mayor’s 2024/25 budget, commented how changing travel patterns means TfL may need to look again at how it manages its fares.

“Maximising the yield of the heavy commute in the early morning has gone, and that begs the question of a potentially different fare structure, which economists will know more about than me, in order to maximise fare yield, while still being fair to fare payers,” he said.

“If we return to a point where 100 or 110% of pre-Covid traffic is now there on a Saturday or in the evening, but only, I’m making it up, 60 or 70% on a Monday or Friday…that has implications for the fare structure in the medium-term, if not now.” 

While TfL is not solely reliant on fares, with other funding sources including advertising on the Tube and government grants, it is more so than almost any other comparable transport authority, the committee had been told earlier in the session.

Mr Khan, who as well as being mayor of London is chair of TfL, has since told LondonWorld that the authority “is always looking at fare structure”.

“I’m incredibly proud we’ve got now the Hopper Fare, unlimited bus and tram travel within an hour, we’ve got the cheapest bus travel in the country, which is remarkable bearing in mind how expensive London is compared to the other parts of the country. We’ve got caps on our fares,” he said.

Mr Khan said TfL is reviewing the different times at which people are now travelling, with rush hour, for example, increasingly seen on the weekends and evenings, as referenced by Sir Tony.

“We are looking at how we can make sure that we continue to have a fair fare system,” he said. “We know for example poorer Londoners use bus and tram more, so we are deliberately focussed on bus and tram. But we are looking at issues on the Tube and Underground as well.”

In his latest report to the TfL board, commissioner Andy Lord noted that, as of August 19, passenger journeys across the network had reached 89% of pre-pandemic levels, up from 85% at the end of 2022/23. The authority had also enjoyed journey growth of just more than 6% in the year-to-date.