Green Party candidate for Mayor of London Sian Berry is pledging to flatten fares and move towards a single zone system for fares in London, if elected in May.

Today’s fare rises are again costing Londoners in outer boroughs much more in travel costs, and Sian is committed to eliminating this inequality between inner and outer London.

The current Mayor’s four year ‘fare freeze’ only applied to single journeys – not the travelcards and weekly contactless caps that working people depend upon.

New data from the Greens today, updating earlier work by Green Assembly Members, show the unfair extra costs being charged to people living in outer London areas for their travel with each increase.

Using the weekly travelcard, which costs the same as the cap on pay-as-you-go fares, the total annual cost of travel into central London from Zone 6 is now £3,114, compared with £1.702 from Zone 2 – a cost of living penalty of £1,412 a year.

These inequalities have worsened over time. Zone 1-6 travel has increased in cost by £395.60 a year since 2016, compared with a rise of £211.60 for Zone 1-2.

Sian’s policy as Mayor would be to flatten the fare structure over time, so that all tube and rail journeys cost the same, regardless of which zones you travel between. This has been the case on London buses since 2004.

If elected Mayor in May, Sian will put her plan for flat fares into action, beginning by merging Zones 4, 5 and 6 by 2024, and moving towards a flat fare system within two Mayoral terms.

Sian Berry says:

“More and more people are being pushed to the edges of London because of housing costs in the centre, only to be punished by spiralling transport costs when they move.

“This isn’t fair. Two workers in the same central London hospital should pay the same fare to get to work no matter where they live. As Mayor I would reduce and, over time, end this inequality within a flat fare system with one zone, eliminating the unfair extra costs imposed on people living in outer London.”