Are Ken’s fares really fair?

Do we really want to go back there?'

Labour’s chief Transport spokesperson has let the cat out of the bag on Ken Livingstone’s election promise to cut fares.

She has confirmed what everybody else knows: there is no money for fare cuts without cutting £1bn worth of investment in services.

In a candid interview with the Guardian today, Maria Eagle said: “Reducing the deficit requires us to support cuts in spending that we might not have in the past. Some of this is painful.”

This follows independent assessments of Ken Livingstone’s election promise that confirm he could not cut fares without cutting investment.

The Channel Four Fact Check blog recently concluded that; ‘If he cuts fares, TfL would expect to lose £1.12bn in income from fares – and that’s a hole he wouldn’t be able to plug without hitting the day-to-day funding for London’s transport or taking money from investment projects.’

It is becoming clearer by the day that either Ken Livingstone has no intention of ever cutting fares, or he is working on a behind the scenes plan to cut £1bn of investment. 

This would mean axing local bus routes in the suburbs, cutting bus police, stopping tube station refurbishments and delaying programmes to make the tube more frequent and less overcrowded. 

He must come clean with Londoners now. Which is it to be?