County councillors have called on London Mayor Sadiq Khan to drop proposals to withdraw Day Travelcards.

Currently, passengers can use the Travelcards for unlimited travel on a range of Transport for London services – including  Underground, buses trams and rail services.

But now plans have been drawn up to withdraw Day Travelcards in 2024 which means passengers would have to buy separate tickets for each leg of their journey, which Hertfordshire county councillors say would be less convenient and more expensive.

On Tuesday (October 17), a meeting of Hertfordshire County Council unanimously backed a motion that slammed the plan as ‘an unfair, unacceptable and expensive levy on Hertfordshire residents’.

That motion – proposed by the executive member for highways and transport Cllr Phil Bibby – said the plan was a ‘method to generate additional income for TfL’.
And it said it was ‘another financial disadvantage’ after the ‘unwise and unfair ULEZ charges’.

Proposing the motion, Conservative Cllr Bibby suggested the withdrawal of Day Travelcards could increase costs by seven per cent for an individual in the county and 16 per cent for a family.

He pointed to the importance of increasing the use of public transport, to sustain financial viability and to provide a ‘cleaner, greener and healthier transport option’.
But he warmed that the withdrawal of the Travelcards could actually impact negatively on TfL’s finances, on the income of rail operators and the London economy overall.
And he said: “This council must convey the message that Sadiq Khan needs to rethink this absurd idea.”

Meanwhile, Labour Cllr Asif Khan said that although he shared a political party with the Mayor of London he did not think this was a decision that is wise.
But he stressed that the context was the lack of funding that all local governments – including Hertfordshire – were facing.

He said that for people to move away from their cars, transport alternatives needed to be more convenient and more economically sustainable.

And he said that could only happen if the government funded it directly. Or, he said, local government would begin to tax – increasing fees or charges or through council tax.

He told the county council he would write to Sadiq Khan, to ask him to ‘think again’.

But he said he hoped Conservative councillors would have the ‘courage to also lobby their government’.

Liberal Democrat Cllr Stephen Giles-Medhurst said the scrapping of the Travelcards would be “a retrograde step” that would force people into private vehicles.

And fellow Lib Dem Cllr Paul Zukowskyj suggested it was ‘a false economy’, asking whether it would make our global city look a bit less global.

Cllr Morris Bright also questioned the impact the move would have on the London economy.

“Doesn’t the Mayor want us to travel into London?” he asked.

“Doesn’t he want people to be going into London? I don’t understand that at all. It just seems like another tax to me.”

And leader of the county council Cllr Richard Roberts suggested the Mayor was deliberately making it more difficult and costly for rail travellers.

“It will just discourage travel into London,” he said.

“It will discourage people from the train – it will push people into their cars.

“Worst of all it will potentially stop them getting out and about and socialising and getting on with their lives, which is exactly what we said about ULEZ.”

Executive member for children, young people and families Cllr Fiona Thomson said withdrawing Travelcards would be ‘an unfair levy’ on residents wishing to travel to London.

And she said: “I think we need to absolutely send a very clear message to the Mayor that this is not acceptable on the back of the ULEZ scheme. 

“This is simply not acceptable in Hertfordshire. We will not accept it for our residents.”

A Liberal Democrat amendment, that was accepted by the council, also called for TfL Underground and overground stations in Hertfordshire to be rezoned into zone six – making journeys cheaper and reflecting their distance from central London.