London’s public transport should be entirely free, say campaigners, echoing mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani’s proposal to remove fares from New York’s buses.
That call comes via Free Fare London, and follows a proposal to widen who can ride a bus for free across England to include more younger people.
Other cities have rolled out the idea of universal free transit access: Luxembourg; Tallinn, Estonia; Montpellier, France; and even Kansas City in the US – though the American city last month ended the free bus trial due to lack of funds.
The largest city to rollout free public transport city wide is likely Belgrade, Serbia; with a population of 1.7 million, it’s quite a bit smaller than London in scale, but the free fares at least go beyond buses to include trams and trolleybuses, as well as a metro system set for completion in 2030.
There are other reasons why London is a tougher target than most, and perhaps the biggest challenge is Transport for London’s (TfL) budget: unlike many transport authorities, most of its operating income is raised via fares, rather than government grants. But there are reasons the idea has appeal – and other ways to improve access to the network too.
Why offer free public transport?
Speaking to the BBC, Free Fare London’s Simon Pirani said making public transport free would boost the local economy, help address inequality and social isolation, and help cut car journeys — the latter of which would help TfL meet a goal set by the mayor’s office for 80% of all London journeys to be active or public transport by 2041.
Responding to a call for free buses for under 22s — which we’ll look at shortly — Fare Free London said high fares can “exacerbate social inequality” and “obstruct progress away from car-centered transport”.
The group points to successful universal free public transport in Luxembourg, Estonia and Serbia, as well as across Brazil.
When it comes to buses, Mamdani makes the same points regarding economic equity, noting that one in five New Yorkers can’t afford fares, but also adds that removing fares when boarding will help speed up service. (He also wants to expand priority lanes and roll out other ways to speed up services.”
Campaign for Better Transport doesn’t argue for completely free travel, but does want to see a nationwide flat fare for young people. “London has lower fares than many other parts of the country, and some good concessions, with free and discounted travel for young people and other groups,” Silviya Barrett of Campaign for Better Transport said via email. “Keeping public transport affordable is essential: nobody should be isolated or excluded because of the cost of travel, and if we are to tackle traffic and pollution it should be cheaper to catch the bus, tube or train than to drive.”
She added: “While we don’t campaign for free public transport, we think there should be fair fares and good, clear concessions, such as a nationwide flat fare for young people under 22.”
Rethinking public transport funding
But, as Pirani admits, that would require “a complete rethink” in how the TfL network was funded.
That’s required not only because of the high financial costs of such a policy, but also because London gets much less government funding compared to other big cities.
One TfL chart shared by the BBC suggests New York, Hong Kong and Paris each get around two-thirds of their funding from public money, with a third from fares; London is the opposite, with 60% of its budget generated by fares, though that figure varies by year. (Beyond fares and government grants, London also makes money from a congestion charge, advertising, and other sources.)
TfL is already trying to reduce the share of its revenue that comes from fares, notes Fare Free London, but said a target of zero could be reached via new charges on road use and parking, a payroll tax similar to that used in Paris to fund public transport, and funds raised by central government, such as an increased fuel duty or wealth tax.
TfL has made it clear that free fares is unlikely, telling the BBC: “The mayor will set out what happens with fares but the government has been clear that the funding in the settlement is provided against an assumed scenario that overall TfL fares will rise by the value of RPI+1% for each year of the settlement.”
In short, it’s not likely that TfL will go fare free anytime soon — but there are other ideas worth considering.
Steps in the right direction
Expanding free travel for some, be it on bus or the tube, could be one way to capture some of the benefits of free fares while also ensuring a network has sufficient funding.
Such partial steps could include offering a fare-free day or discounted travel times — as TfL trialled to boost travel into the centre last summer — or by shifting to reduced flat or capped fares, making it cheaper as well as easier to know exactly how much a trip will cost. For example, rather than charging for Tube travel by zone, make each trip a set price, regardless of distance.
Another route is to include a wider range of people in fare concessions. Earlier this month, the House of Common’s Transport Committee called for anyone under 22 to get a free bus pass in England; that’s already the case in Scotland, while fares for those aged 16-21 are set to be capped at £1 in Wales.
“England’s patchwork of local youth concessions contrasts with national schemes in Scotland and Wales,” the report said. “A coherent national approach to ensure fair access across England is essential if the government is serious about driving economic growth, which depends on removing barriers to education, training, and employment for the next generation.”
Part of the concern is falling numbers of bus passengers, with the MPs’ report suggesting that had fallen from 4.6bn in 2009 to 3.6bn last year, which is partially down to reduced services in rural regions. The MPs’ report noted: “In some areas, transport is restricting opportunity rather than enabling it.”
Plus, such a policy has the added benefit of getting younger people into the habit of using public transport, rather than pushing them into car dependency early in life. However, research from Estonia suggested free transport was used by those walking or cycling, rather than drivers.
Free buses in London?
Rather than go completely fare free across London — with its mix of buses, bikes, tubes, trains, trams and even cable car — TfL could consider following Mamdani’s idea and making its buses free.
Buses make up 8% of the fares gathered by TfL, according to its own figures, pulling in £404m of a total £5,045 million in fare revenue for 2023/24. While that’s still a significant funding gap to address, it’s much more achievable than also covering the £2.5bn raised by fares on the Underground, too. (In New York, bus fares make up just 4% of the overall budget.)
However, the problem remains that TfL doesn’t have hundreds of millions of pounds to play with — the money would have to come from somewhere, and as some would surely argue, could be better spent on maintaining and upgrading infrastructure rather than free bus trips.
But if a future mayoral candidate wants to borrow this policy for London, they’re welcome to it all the same.