Congestion cap: £10 becomes £5
27th October, 2008
You may have noticed that one of the changes to the TIF bid announced today included a lowering of the daily maximum charge from £10 to £5.
I trailed this here but made less of it than some other media because (a) one a tiny proportion of people would ever pay the maximum fare (a handful of delivery drivers, essentially); and (b) the cap on bus fares is clearly more important to more people.
And then there is (c) – the fact I told you back in July that the maximum charge would be reduced. I wouldn’t want to minimise the importance of the various changes announced today; but don’t be surprised these rabbits have been pulled out of the hat just weeks before the referendum.
Yet another example of the insight into people’s behaviour that Monty Python gave us mearly 30 years ago in THe Life Of Brian.
All together now:
“THEY’RE MAKING IT UP AS THEY GO ALONG”.
what next ? free woolly gloves for the time spent waiting at the bus stops !!!
October 27th, 2008 at 2:46 pm
The more people & journeys are made exempt the more the remaining few unlucky ones will have to pay to balance the books.
October 27th, 2008 at 3:22 pm
Unfortuately, the only people helped out with the 20% discount are those on minimum wage. Many other people who are struggling to get by won’t be helped.
This also adds to the bureaucratic burden and the oddity that for every bus journey certain people will have to prove their lack of financial well being.
October 27th, 2008 at 4:01 pm
So you’ve made less of this than other media David? Not so little that you repeatedly refered to it as an “up to £10 a day” charge for a while and when people complained you then blogged about what else you could actually call it?
It was always going to be £5. Everyone with a half a brain knew this and to brag about this as if you are some sort of messiah is quite ridiculous. I’m sure the idea of patronising the masses through the written word makes you feel quite grand; perhaps it’s time you moved to a more reputable publication for more of a challenge?
From my point of view, dissapointing. From the uneducated masses I’m sure they love you – well done.
October 27th, 2008 at 8:39 pm
£5 a day cap at 2007 prices, thats £10 a day in 2013 then! LOL
DISGUSTING
October 27th, 2008 at 11:34 pm
Jeff,
I never made a big deal of the fact the charge was going to be up to £10 a day. It is true that I used to use the expression “charge of up to £10 a day” because this was, at the time, strictly accurate. When readers pointed out it didn’t really reflect the reality most people would experience, I said I’d consider using an alternative phrasing, or dropping the phrase “up to £10 a day” altogether.
But that wasn’t the point of this post. The point of this post was that I considered yesterday’s cap cut, from £10 to £5, must less important than other aspects of the changes to the TIF bid.
Part of the reason for this was that I have long suspected – and indeed predicted – that the cut would happen.
You say this was “common knowledge”, but I suggest you will struggle to find other people who have made similar predictions in print. TIF bid leaders have always denied (and would still deny) that they planned all along to cut the cap at the last minute.
I had good reason to expect the cut – and I shared this information with my readers. That is my job. I don’t consider this “Messianic”; I’m simply trying to put all the information I glean into the public domain, so people can make up their own minds about how, why and when decisions are made.
October 28th, 2008 at 9:07 am