I’ve recently returned from a year studying in Hong Kong (where the trains are criminally cheap in comparison), and I’ve realised that public transport can, in fact, not cost an arm and a leg to use. Why does getting around in London cost so much? I live in Zone 5 and will easily spend £7-8 per day just getting in to uni. Why are we expected to spend this much just to get around?

EDIT: Found this article that suggests London has the most expensive public transport in the world. I really do wonder why we’re world-beatingly awful at being affordable to get around.

(https://www.standard.co.uk/news/transport/tube-most-expensive-metro-tfl-fares-increase-b1068831.html#:~:text=The%20Tube%20has%20the%20most,was%20highest%20in%20the%20capital.)

by jesh_10

10 comments

  1. Because TfL doesn’t get any government funds because the Tories are a party of spiteful, joyless cunts who think the rich deserve to be rich and the poor deserve to be poor.

  2. If my bike gets stolen after going to work 23 times, it would cost the same as the train fare for the same period. So it is still a better deal to keep my bike on the street and have it stolen every few months than to pay for the tickets lol.

  3. Can you not invest in a railcard and load it to your oyster to save in the longterm?

  4. Public transport in Hong Kong can be cheap because MTR is also a big real estate developer in Hong Kong. Ticketing revenue is just a small part of their income (even though they keep raising prices every year and Hong Kong has a very low average of household income – but that’s a completely different subject)

  5. Also TFL per mile is actually quite cheap compared to other similarly funded cities.

  6. Ah the loony left who think this is a Tory issue. As usual. Probably the Tories responsible for what’s going on in Ukraine right now.

    Fares have increased by actual fuck all in line with inflation.
    And they were frozen for 4 years in a row
    https://tfl.gov.uk/info-for/media/press-releases/2019/december/tfl-reminds-customers-of-tfl-fares-freeze-in-2020#:~:text=Transport%20for%20London%20(TfL)%20is,in%20a%20row%20during%202020.

    Which funnily enough a pandemic starved a lot of places of revenue, given there isn’t a money tree to constantly chuck at the system, fares have to eventually go up.

    It isn’t actually expensive, Christ. Try commuting in from outside the zones.

    Weird thing to compare, how much more does it cost to rent somewhere in HK?

  7. I imagine there’s a whole host of reasons why there’s a cost difference but a major one I imagine is running a much smaller subway network in Hong Kong and which is considerably newer considering it only opened in 1979 in the second highest population density in the world probably makes a big difference.

  8. It’s because 1) very little public subvention 2) there is too much demand. Most cities wish their inhabitants use the public transport as much as possible but TfL is already over its capacity during peak hours.

  10. How much was a similar distance journey in Hong Kong?

    Their minimum wage is about 2/5ths that of the UK minimum wage as a start.

    London also has the oldest underground system in the world, which creates some extra problems.

    I mostly cycle – London can be ‘done cheaply’, but generally it’s a city for well off people. There are a lot of cheaper places to live in the UK – like basically all of the rest of it.

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