Bus fare rise hits low-paid Londoners

Low paid workers who rely on public transport to get to work have been hit especially hard by the higher fares on London's buses and tubes that came into effect at the start of the New Year, according to Peter Kenway, Director of New Policy Institute

London's bus and tube fares have just gone up by an average of 12.7% and 3.9% respectively. Yet among those who use them for getting to work, the bus is much more likely to be used by low paid workers than others who are paid more. According to official figures, half of Londoners who travel to work by bus earn £10 an hour or less. By contrast, only a quarter of those who do so by tube (and just a sixth of those going by train) earn this little.

As well as being more likely to be low paid, those using the bus for work are more likely to be women than men and more likely to be going to part-time rather than full-time jobs.

As a result, increases in bus fares fall much more upon the shoulders of low paid workers than do increases in tube (or rail) fares. This year's threefold difference in the increase as between the two forms of transport is therefore profoundly to the disadvantage of low paid Londoners.

As part of The Mayor's Business Plan, the intention is to make a systematic shift in subsidy from buses to tubes. Peter Kenway at NPI argues that this represents redistribution from poorer workers to richer ones.

Bus fare rise hits low-paid Londoners

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