Days after being elected mayor of London, Sadiq Khan has given London’s commuters and visitors – at least those who frequently travel by bus – reason to rejoice. In his first policy act, he has introduced a 'hopper fare' that will allow bus passengers to change from one bus to another over a one-hour period for the flat-rate cost of a single bus ticket: £1.50.
Launching in September, the rate will be applied automatically whether customers 'touch in' using Oyster cards or contactless payments; London buses stopped accepting cash payments two years ago. The initiative is expected to particularly benefit Londoners on lower incomes who rely primarily on the bus network to travel around the city.
Initially the hopper fare will be capped, with commuters benefitting from free transit on the second bus they use within the hour but charged again for subsequent bus journeys thereafter. This is apparently owing to technological limitations that prevent Transport for London from applying successive discounts. However, upgrades to the systems that govern ticketing are due to be carried out next year and it is expected that TfL will deliver unlimited flat-rate bus journeys within one hour by the end of 2018, if not earlier.
On current estimates demands for the capped fare is certainly there. Last year there were an estimated 2.5 billion bus journeys completed in the capital, including 600 million pay-as-you-go journeys. Of these bus journeys, an estimated 86 million went on to make another bus journey within one hour.
Though the hopper fare is a first for London, it has long been recommended by the Liberal Democrats as a means of making public transport more affordable to workers on lower incomes. Then-mayor Boris Johnson rejected that suggestion in 2009, saying its implementation would prove too costly.