Simon Pirani shares the Fare Free London report which warns high fares do damage
High fares on public transport, especially on the tube and trains, obstruct Londoners’ access to employment opportunities, education and reasonable living standards, Fare Free London said in a briefing published this month.
The campaign group conducted a survey over the summer, which showed that workers in the capital spend many extra hours a week – and, in some cases, many extra hours a day – commuting, to avoid expensive trains and use cheaper but slower buses.
London’s tube and train fares are among the world’s highest. They exacerbate social isolation and mental illness among the most vulnerable Londoners. They obstruct people’s ability to socialise, to take their children places and to access London’s cultural treats.
The briefing also showed that students tangle with trade-offs between housing costs, which are lower outside the capital and travel costs that are much higher.
“We did not have the intention, or capacity, to survey a demographically representative group of Londoners”, said Pearl Ahrens of Fare Free London. “We focused on how transport costs affect lower-income households, whose views are often least heard.
“Nearly half of our respondents said they worry about costs every time they use public transport. More than half said they use cheaper modes of transport because better ones are too expensive. This often meant people taking long journeys by bus instead of tube.”
Respondents’ quotes in the survey are a stark reminder of the yawning gap between London’s wealthiest and poorest households.
A single man told one of our researchers how he had had a cleaning job in Zone 1. To start work at 7.00 am, he caught a bus from SE18 at 5.00 am, got off in Zone 2 and walked the rest of the way.
A single mother of two daughters explained how she takes three buses to work, from SE9 to Piccadilly. She described herself as “struggling to make ends meet – doing a balancing act”, and having to limit her daughters’ weekend outings due to travel costs.
Fare Free London was set up last year by activists who had participated in the Stop the Silvertown Tunnel coalition. I was one of them. We had support from the Greener Jobs Alliance, Tipping Point and other campaign groups.
The tunnel has now been built – a backward step for London – but we were determined to continue working against the Mayor of London’s car-centred transport policy, and towards a transport system that is socially just and helps tackle the climate crisis. That means greater use of public transport and fewer cars.
The campaign has met with officials from City Hall, won the support of the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain, Doctors in Unite and other labour movement groups, and started outreach in communities.
When the House of Commons Transport Committee proposed that free bus travel for under-22s be expanded from Scotland to England and Wales, together with Fare Free Yorkshire, Get Glasgow Moving and others we called for zero-fares to be extended more widely. We hope to continue working with those groups to make our campaign a national one.
The expansion of fare-free public transport internationally is proving an important inspiration. We held an annual meeting and panel discussion in September, which opened with an online talk by Daniel Santini of the University of São Paulo, explaining how more than 130 municipalities in Brazil have abolished fares. In Europe, the capitals of Serbia and Estonia, the whole of Luxembourg, and several French cities are among those with zero fares.
A panel discussion at the event with Caroline Russell, Green Party member of the London Assembly, Ruth London of Fuel Poverty Action, RMT activist Daniel Randall and others got down to practicalities.
Arguing the case in the unions will be key for the next year. In the RMT, local branches representing tube workers have supported the zero-fares principle, but the idea has not been accepted at the national level. We are also considering how we can press our case in the run-up to the May 2026 council elections.
Fare Free London is keen to work together with all other labour movement, community and environmental organisations for a publicly-funded, socially just transport system that serves people, not profits. Email us at info@farefreelondon.org to join our mailing list, or join our WhatsApp group.