Is London's public transport really so expensive?

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London has a fantastic public transport network yet we still get special pleading:

Travelling in London is nearly three and a half times more expensive than Paris and 10 times dearer than in Rome, according to research by the Campaign for Better Transport.  With successive Governments in Britain allowing fares to rise faster than inflation, the gap has also been widening in recent years.  Next week commuter fares, which are capped by the Department for Transport, will increase by an average of six per cent.

Now this information should be treated with some caution – it’s based on one 23 mile journey rather than an assessment of the system itself. For me the central question is whether Londoners, Parisians and Romans can give up the car (i.e. it is no longer essential to practical living). For most people within the urban area of London Paris the car is only needed to visit maiden aunts in Hampshire, it isn’t needed to get to work, visit locally, shop or do those other regular everyday things.

Rome – crammed to the gunnels with crazy traffic – has just 38km of underground and less than 200km of other urban rail system. Paris Metro is a little longer at 86km and the other light rail is limited. The London Underground alone has 402km of track before we’ve taken account of overground services, trams and bus priority systems.

In London a comprehensive annual ticket (Zones 1-9) costs a little over £3,000. But bear in mind that the transport system in London is so comprehensive you don’t need a car (although this gets a little trickier the further you get from London). The AA gives a running cost for the cheapest category of car (valued at below £12,000 new) at 10,000 miles per annum as £4,553 – over £1500 more expensive than using public transport.

The Campaign for Better Transport is arguing that we should use more of the taxes paid by people who don’t use London’s commuter network to reduce the cost of that commuting rather than getting those commuters to pay the full cost of providing the world’s most extensive and comprehensive public transport system. Especially given that this system is significantly cheaper than running a car (that is only a luxury to most Londoners).

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London - you've had all the Country's transport investment so shut up moaning

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It seems hardly a day passes by without some London-dweller whining on about the city's transport systems. Whether is the bloody obvious about crowding (as reported by Al Jahom here) or endless phone ins, news reports and workplace grumbling.

Speaking from West Yorkshire....can you all SHUT UP. I mean it...

London has the most extensive, comprehensive, reliable and accessible transport system of any major city anywhere in the world - between the underground, the bus network and the 'overground' anywhere within 30 miles of the City has easy, effective connections.

Why? Because you've had all the transport investment - £614 per head compared to a measly £215 per head here in Yorkshire. And with Crossrail, the Olympics, the new termini for the Channel Tunnel, billions poured into the tube system and double the road investment, London and the South East continues to get the transport investment it needs. Almost entirely at the expense of the remainder of England.

So, as I said....shut up about your transport system - it's very good and very well funded.

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Copyright, patents and bloody lawyers

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I'm a fan of copyright and the protection of intellectual property - given that I'm sitting in a house paid for from earnings in publishing, advertising and marketing it's hard not to take such a view. The creators of something do have the right to seek protection from those who would exploit that creation without permission. And as we all know the rights we have - and the protection of those rights don't come for free.

But there is a real problem with our copyright and IP laws - a problem that isn't solved by Peter Mandelson sucking up to billionaire yacht-owners. They are being turned into tools of suppression rather than protection. Just take the case of the Underground Restaurant - a charming institution that I've never eaten at (for no reason than it being in London a place I try to avoid most of the time).

Today Ms Marmite Lover the proprietor (if that's the right world for the organiser of a transitory, peripatetic eatery) told us that lawyers representing the London Underground were unhappy with her use of the word "underground" and (I assume) a mash-up of the iconic London Underground logo.

This follows on from lawyers representing Warner Brothers threatening dire retribution if a Harry Potter theme was used for one restaurant event. I mean exactly how does that damage the brand?

So would you like to join me in writing to the Chairman of Transport for London - the lovely Boris Johnson asking him to call off his lawyers and tell his officers to focus on rather more important matters (which you may all choose according to you preference)

Boris Johnson
Mayor of London
Greater London Authority
City Hall
The Queen's Walk
London SE1 2AA
mayor@london.gov.uk

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