This coming January’s high fares package, announced yesterday, is “the biggest real-terms fares increases in [TfL's] history,” says the Financial Times.

This is relevant because Boris Johnson, spinning wildly, tried to argue that Ken Livingstone had raised the fares more.

But the FT’s report shows that Johnson’s increases are the biggest yet.

“The London mayor’s transport organisation is to impose the biggest real-terms fares increases in its history as it seeks to plug what it claims is a £1.7bn “black hole” in its budget.

“Underground fares will rise by an average 3.9 per cent from January, while bus fares will go up by 12.7 per cent. Boris Johnson, the mayor, said the increases were comparable to similar-sized increases in 2005 and 2006 under Ken Livingstone, his predecessor. However, since inflation is far lower than in the previous years, the coming increase is significantly higher in real terms and the largest since Transport for London took over responsibility for London’s transport network in 2000.”

The current low rate of inflation at present makes the whole increase even more unjust.