The Fares Shock
The reaction of Londoners to the increased fares which they had to face on March 2nd was a formidable thing. It is most unlikely that it will be quickly forgotten, or that the reference of the matter to the Central Transport Con- sultative Committee will be the end of the matter. It may appear to the official mind to be irrational that transport users should make such a fuss .about fare increases whose general size was made known in advance and about alterations in fare stages which can always be made at the discretion of the British Transport Commission. But perhaps in this case the man in the bus may have a clearer grasp of essentials than the official in the office. It is not just a matter of failure on the part of the public relations officers of the transport authorities to let the London public know in sufficient detail what was going to happen to it on March 2nd. • Nor is it a matter of overhauling the machinery of complaint or of amending the Transport Act of 1947. What has happened is that the London travelling public in its millions has come face to face with the crude fact of inflation. There have been price rises before this—and wage rises to meet them—but the very size of this one and its simultaneous impact on a very large body of consumers who had not been adequately prepared for it, have caused a genuine revulsion of public opinion.
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