The Independent Newspaper announces:
TfL told to hike fares and strip elderly of free travel to access new £1bn bailout
Measures including extending congestion charge area ‘totally unacceptable to the mayor’, source says
Transport for London (TfL) has been offered an additional billion pounds in bailout money from the government - along with further demands for fare hikes and cuts to free travel entitlements for children and pensioners, it has been reported.
The capital’s transport operator, which is overseen by the mayor’s office, first received a cash injection from the government in May on the condition the operator raise the congestion charge by 30 per cent and temporarily stop free travel initiatives for children and those over 60.
However as public transport has continued to drop to unprecedented levels due to the impact of the coronavirus on daily life, the government is understood to have offered a further £1bn to add to the previous £1.6bn financial boost.
Sources close to the talks cited by Reuters said TfL had been told by ministers that any funding would have to be accompanied by ending remaining free travel entitlements and hiking up fares....
Claimants of 'working age benefits' are accustomed to endless 'conditionality' and sanctions imposed upon them by central Government, and this Tory Government is already increasing the 'working age benefits' franchise by steadily gazumping the state retirement age, "work until you drop dead of exhaustion from pointless Universal Credit Claimant Commitment 'conditionality';" but London's 60+ Oyster Card helps keep London moving and reduces Global Warming while alleviating poverty among those unlikely to ever find paid work again.
Meanwhile, in Herefordshire, the Shire Council in a two-Tory safe seats area has plans for reducing congestion and Global Warming by measures including extending public transport. And Hereford & South MP Jesse Norman is First Secretary to the Treasury. What conditionality might be lumbered upon this democratically elected coalition council comprising Independent, Its Our County and Green Party councillors [in order of numbers of council seats]?
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