Tuesday, January 03, 2012

Stop the Rail and Bus Fare Rip Off

This morning I was outside Plaistow Underground station handing leaflets out to commuters about the massive increases in London bus and rail fares by Tory Mayor, Boris Johnson.   This is the 4th year of inflation busting rises. If you are on minimum wage you could spend a quarter of your income on
fares. If Ken Livingston is elected in May he has promised to save the average commuter £1000 over 4 years.

In Newham we had activists handing out leaflets outside nearly all our stations. While in London today there were thousands of Labour Party volunteers handing out information across hundreds of bus and rail stations across the capital.

The weather was pretty miserable, not that cold, but rainy and windy. One woman complained bitterly to me about the £5 extra a month she now had to pay while a man wanted to take leaflet to show his boss and ask for pay rise.
I'm starting to get a grip of the psychology of handing out leaflets outside stations.  When a group of people come towards you from say a bus, if the first person takes a leaflet then most of the rest will also take one. But if the first few don't, then no-one in that group will tend to either. 

Picture of top West Ham CLP activist Tahmina in action (yet again - she was also out tonight with Newham Young Labour outside Stratford station).

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

You must think the public are stupid. Ken is making promises he can't keep. He is obviously desparate to get back in. I guess it does not matter, if he makes promises he can't keep. He probably needs to be in office one more term before he retires.

Ken had 8 years to sort transport. Boris is no better.

I would have prefered, if he made a move on merging local councils. We don't need 32 councils in London. Just a few super councils....

John Gray said...

Hi anon

Nope - Ken has made a costed commitment.

He has a record of delivering what he promises (you may not like what he delivers but that is a different issue).

I doubt the Mayor or GLA has any powers to reduce the number of councils.