Exactly TFL was to told they would lose £700m in government subsidies. Khan knew this before he was elected Mayor and yet campaigned on a no fare rise ticket. He was repeatedly told during the campaign his sums didn't add up yet ignored it.

This year TFL debt was downgraded by the rating agencies prior to the virus largely because he had significantly increased the debt with his spending plans and due to a fall in revenue.

Sorry he spent money he didn't have and now he blames the government because they want to keep on eye on our money.

A sensible election strategy would have been to increase fares but promise to keep them to a minimum and look for ways to reduces expenses not increase them. If he had done that then he would have been in a far better position when requesting emergency government support.

Edited by Badger11 (19 May 2020 6.27pm)

One more point

I will keep my post as it is thank you.

I wasn’t politicising or blaming this or that government, just making a point that these increases are disgusting.

I go inside central London 3 to 4 times a week on average and this stuff adds up.

If they need the money then fine, but call it what it is, a tax, because that’s what it is, it’s got f@ck all to do with congestion, that’s for sure.

"It feels much better than it ever did, much more sensitive." John Wayne Bobbit

London was pretty much let down by two very poor candidates during the last election. Khan is probably a nice guy, but politically Naive.

Khan's figures didnt add up and he got hit with a number of failures at once. Uber had been hitting TfL's pockets hard.

In terms of pissing of the least amount of people, increasing the congestion charge is probably the best option he has left.

Can't read it unless you have a subscription !

Red and Blue though and through (more than 50 years)

I dislike how divisive politics is now.

The guy has done some good things and some bad things. His team are well reported, and by all accounts the is definitely a bit of fat there. But, that will be a piss in the ocean of running TfL, so why is that even in the same conversation. Boris had the same sort of crap chucked at him over the garden bridge, the bike scheme.

Year on year fare rises happened above inflation for over a decade, I remember, seeing no pay rise, and my 1-4 creeping up, and at the same time there being no discernible improvements. Since TfL took the reigns it has improved, people pay fares now as well, but without subsidy it was expensive. Khan has done right by Londoners by keeping fares as low as he can, and no one could predict that the result would have been a bailout due to 2 month period of a 90% drop in passengers.

The hike in the cost of cars is a good thing. Why drive in town anyway? Put a mask on and get on the train then wash your hands at the other end.

Khan just like all politicians is on a hiding to nothing now. Maybe TfL should have been running a surplus, sadly this wasn’t the case. Everyone else needed a bail out, not least the treasury selling bonds like there is no tomorrow. So why are people shocked?

Apart from the loss of the £700m subsidy from the government which was announced before the mayoral elections there were two other big holes in Khan's financial plans. Revenue from TFL has fallen which is surprising and Crossrail has been a financial disaster. Now you can argue that Khan never started Crossrail but I'm afraid on his watch the problems came to light.

Faced with these setbacks Khan should have raised fares 2/3 years ago and cut back on some of his spending plans. Now he could have argued that this was the fault of the previous administration and he might even have a point and some sympathy.

However what is not in doubt is that he chose to ignore the impact on the TFL budget of these issues even when transport experts told him it was unsustainable.

It is all well and good promising people no fare rises and more services but if you have no money to pay for them at some point the proverbial hits the fan. In this case the virus speeded up the issue it would have happened anyway unless he changed his strategy or we got a new Mayor.

Rather like the last Brown government I expect Khan will leave a note for his successor "sorry no money".

One more point