Bus Fares hike risks undoing one of London's green success stories
Higher fares will push people off the buses and back into their cars. The London Mayor himself recognises this and is planning to run fewer buses between now and 2012 as he is expecting fewer passengers. Service quality contracts for the bus operators have also been scrapped. This Mayor has ended a thirty year period of continual expansion of the bus service in London. Our international reputation as the only major city in the world to actually reduce traffic is now under threat.
The impact of this on Londoners will be immediate. Many of the poorest are paying more, whilst the environment suffers as traffic and pollution rise. The real tragedy of this fare rise is that it could have been avoided if Boris had made the right environmental choices, such as keeping the planned £25 emissions charge on gas guzzlers and retaining the western extension of the congestion charge. By putting car drivers before bus passengers he could wreck one of London's green success stories.
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