Ticket promotions will not lure passengers back to London's failing transport network |
City Hall is set to spend £20 million on ‘fares innovation’ in a bid to lure Londoners back to the capital’s transport system. But occasional discounts and marginal savings will not make up for a tube network dogged by plunging customer satisfaction, rising incidents of sexual violence, surging fares, epidemic levels of fare evasion and festooned in graffiti.
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The mayor needs more Londoners to use the transport network. Transport for London’s (TfL) draft business plan includes an assumption that passenger demand will enjoy ‘steady growth’ across all modes and demand will reach 94 per cent of pre-pandemic levels by 2029/30. However, whilst the Elizabeth Line continues to outperform expectations, the opposite is true of the rest of the network. TfL has seen a catastrophic drop in bus passenger numbers while London Underground passenger numbers have missed targets and demand on the DLR is also down.
TfL’s travel demand assumptions are, therefore, looking shaky to say the least. The mayor has decided to allocate £20 million from the City Hall budget to explore ‘fares innovation’ to see if discounts and price promotions can arrest the fall in passenger numbers.
Whilst the temptation is to blame low passenger numbers on the legacy of COVID and the move for employees........