Flexible ticketing consultation: 3-day Travelcard, annual refunds, & travel loans

· 90-day consultation with 418 responses handed to TfL
· 78% in favour of a 3-day travel card
· 67% want refunds for season ticket holders for walking or cycling to the office

London: A recent 90-day consultation on the future of commuting in London has shown overwhelming support for new ticketing systems to encourage walking, cycling or working from home for part of the week.

• 78% of respondents are in favour of a 3-day Travelcard
• 67% want annual rebates for season ticket holders who underuse their Travelcard by cycling or walking to work, or working from home, for part of the week

 
Roger Evans, GLA Conservative London Assembly Member, and author of two reports on flexible ticketing, said:

“With over 400 people writing in from across London, the consultation shows that commuters overwhelmingly want flexible ticketing systems to cater for their varied work and travel patterns. It’s clear that a 3-day Travelcard combined with a system of annual commuter rebates will encourage Londoners to cycle, walk, or work from home one or two days a week. People have also been clear that they would want to use the 3-day Travelcard non-consecutively.”
 

“Travel loan ‘kitemark’ system for businesses”

Respondents have also showed interest in owning an annual Travelcard but commented that the initial investment, which ranges from £944 to £3,256, can be unaffordable.

For this reason, the consultation has resulted in an additional policy proposal – establishing a ‘kitemark’ system which would encourage more businesses to offer annual travel loans to employees. This would enable people to benefit from the savings of an annual Travelcard whilst paying for it in 12-monthly instalments direct from their pay packet.

Roger Evans said:

“One consistent bit of feedback from the consultation is the number of people that want an annual season ticket but can’t afford to pay an upfront lump sum. Annual Travelcards provide savings of hundreds of pounds compared to their monthly counterparts. To help more people take advantage of these savings, and the possible future savings of annual rebates, we need a system to encourage employers to provide annual travel loans. London should be celebrating the companies that provide great services to their employees, much in the same way the Mayor celebrates those that pay the Living Wage. Whilst forcing businesses to offer this perk through legislation would be counterproductive, joining a simple ‘kitemark’ system would be a way of demonstrating that a company is a good employer. A package of flexible ticketing is expected to be introduced in January 2015. I’ll be working hard with the Mayor and TfL to make the travel options as flexible as possible for Londoners.”

 
 

Check out the full consultation responses and recommendations at: https://glaconservatives.co.uk/fcr

Click here to download the report

Or to save it right click 'save as' on this link glaconservatives.co.uk/fcr

 

 

For Rogers previous work on flexible commuting please see Home Works and Commuter Payback