Tube fares hike adds to strike woes

London Underground travellers, forced to contend with today's Tube strike are facing the prospect of price rises at three times the rate of inflation.

Some journeys will go up by 5 per cent, although the average rise, due to take effect from 5 January, will be 1.55 per cent. The impact of the increase will be felt most heavily by those who buy single or return daily tickets from outside zone one into the centre of the capital, Transport for London (TfL) said yesterday.

Today's strike, the second in two weeks, saw services grind to a halt across the network. Commuters trains into the capital were packed from early on, and operating companies warned that trains would run late, because of the large numbers of passengers.

The only trains running on the Tube were a handful operating between Victoria and Kings Cross and the network will not retuirn to normal until tomorow morning, even though the strike ends at 8pm.

Members of the Rail Maritime and Transport Union and Aslef are protesting against an imposed 3 per cent pay rise and have warned of further strikes.

Under the fares rise, a single journey from zone two into zone one will rise from £1.90 to £2.00 – an increase of 5.3 per cent, while a ticket from zone three to zone one will go up by 4.5 per cent. Zone-one weekly Travelcard users will face a 1.9 per cent increase, seeing the cost of their ticket rise by 30p to £16.50. The fares have been approved by London's Mayor, Ken Livingstone, who is also the chairman of TfL.

A TfL spokesman said the 5 per cent price hike arose partly from ticket machines' inability to accept small coins. "If we increase fares, they have to go up by at least 10p as the ticket machines do not accept 5p pieces. It is true to say that one form of journey will rise by more than 5 per cent, but some fares don't rise at all.

"The average rise is in line with inflation. The Mayor has always said that he intends that Tube fare rises will be pegged broadly in line with inflation," said the spokesman.