New Year? Same old Boris hangover for working London

By Alex Smith / @alexsmith1982

UPDATE: John Prescott has also posted on Boris Johnson’s fare increases, saying the Tories are “waging a class war in which the poor pay 20% more to subsidise Chelsea Porche drivers.”

As people around the country return to work after their Christmas breaks today, people in London and the South East are bracing themselves for a pocket pinch to the tune of 20% – as Boris Johnson’s new fare increases come into effect across the capital.

They’ll not be alone in expressing their anger, though: local volunteers for Labour will be handing out 100,000 leaflets detailing the extent of the increases over the next few days.

Karen Buck, the Labour MP for Regent’s Park and Kensington North, has also weighed in:

“The basic bus fare has soared by a staggering one-third since he became Mayor of London less than two years ago. To get elected, Boris Johnson promised to ‘put commuters first’ and he even argued that fares were too high. But he has broken his promise and instead of helping Londoners get through the recession, he is targetting those who rely on buses and tubes for particularly painful and unfair rises. If Boris Johnson hadn’t personally chosen to scrap a large part of London’s bus fleet – and scrap the western extension of the congestion zone – he could have kept fares down, as Labour would have done.”

And Ken Livingstone, the former Mayor, reiterated his alternative plans to cut fares if re-elected in 2012:

“This high fares mess must be undone through policies to make fares fairer. A future fares cut should be financed through the restoration of the western extension of the congestion charge, both reducing traffic levels and generating, at current figures, £70million a year, alongside the introduction of a higher £25 charge for the most polluting gas guzzlers – which if it had not been axed by Boris Johnson would already be generating around £50million a year. These two measures would make it possible to hold down fares, not squeeze Londoners hard as Boris Johnson is doing…The next mayor must reverse Boris Johnson’s policy of protecting polluters at the expense of fare payers and instead should cut fares.”

The so-called Action Union Man has also put together this video over the Christmas break – and discovered that people think Boris’ fare rises are “a Cold Turkey”:

Ready or not, here comes the general election campaign!