Quote:
Originally Posted by Osem
Just managed to catch a snippet of a debate on this subject on LBC the other day. It was being suggested that Ken Livingstone's reluctance to increase fares significantly just prior to the mayoral election contributed substantially to the bigger than expected rise this time. Of course some will say Mayor Boris is bound to blame his predecessor and/or HMG for this but I'd like to see more detail re the facts and figures before I pass judgement either way.
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Also what isn't being said about that is that Boris scrapped the congestion charge extension and the increased fee for 4x4/other gas guzzlers so Boris did in fact cause a drop in revenue into the future transport budget. You can't cut money making schemes and then blame the person before you that the budget isn't balanced.
I have no doubt Ken Livingston didn't want to increase fares and hence was looking at other ways to raise the money (such as schemes mentioned before) in order to make public transport a better alternative. Boris is taking a different approach I guess.