TfL fares expected to increase by 5.8%

15 December 2025

Transport for London (TfL) fares are expected to increase by 5.8% next March, according to TfL’s draft 2026-27 Budget, and the Mayor has announced that fares will be frozen on buses and trams until July 2026, funded by City Hall.

However, it is unclear what this freeze will cost, with the draft GLA:Mayor 2026-27 Budget plan already £19m short of available funding.

In the Mayor’s 2024 Manifesto, he pledged to ‘freeze TfL fares until at least 2025 and continue to freeze fares for as long as economic conditions allow.’

The Government’s spending review in June 2025 included the announcement “Providing the largest multi-year settlement for London in over a decade, with £2 billion of funding between 2026‑27 and 2029-30 for Transport for London’s (TfL) capital renewals”.^2]

However, the funding in this settlement is provided against an assumed scenario that overall TfL fares will rise by the value of RPI+1 for each year of this settlement.

Tomorrow, the London Assembly Budget and Performance Committee will meet to scrutinise TfL’s draft 2026-27 budget. The Committee will speak with TfL and the Deputy Mayor about the assumed fares increase, the cost of the bus and tram fares freeze, capital renewals and staffing costs.

The guests are:

 

• Seb Dance, Deputy Mayor for Transport 

• Andy Lord, TfL Commissioner 

• Rachel McLean, TfL Chief Finance Officer 

• Pritesh Patel, TfL Group Finance Director 

 

The meeting will take place on Tuesday 16 December 2025 from 10am in the Chamber at City Hall, Kamal Chunchie Way, E16 1ZE.

Media and members of the public are invited to attend.

The meeting can also be viewed LIVE or later via webcast or YouTube. 

Follow  @LondonAssembly.

 

Notes

 

1. Mayor announces plans for 2026 TfL fares package, including a further freeze, for the seventh time, to bus and tram fares until July funded by City Hall | London City Hall
2. HMT, Spending Review 2025, 30 June 2025
3. Neil Garratt AM, Chairman of the Budget and Performance Committee, is available for interview.
4. Find out more about the work of the Budget and Performance Committee.
5. Read the agenda in full.
6. As well as investigating issues that matter to Londoners, the London Assembly acts as a check and a balance on the Mayor.

 

source: london.gov.uk