Astronomical London Transportation Fares

December 11, 2004

So, after drunkenly fumbling through my wallet for 2 pounds late on Thursday night to take the tube from Liverpool street station to Tower Hill, It struck me that here in London we did manage to draw the (extremely) short straw with relation to travel charges. Hence here I am on Saturday night investigating transport costs on various public transportation systems worldwide (Give me a break, I have a cold and feel really shit so im not going to be doing anything else).

Anyway, I’m sure the table below will not be a surprise to any of us who travels around London on a regular basis, and it definately won’t be a surprise to any tourists who have found their wallets and purses severely lightened by travelling on the underground.

The table below shows the various systems from a sample worldwide, the ticket type (I tried to include similar types of travel on rail based systems), the fare cost in local currency, the fare cost normalised down to the US Dollar (using XE.COM for currency conversion), and the percentage fare compared to the fare cost in London (with London being 100%).

The results speak for themselves. (And how I wish I lived in Russia)

City Type of Fare Fare (Local) Fare (N) % LDN
London 1 Zone
£2.00
$3.85
100%
Chicago 1 Ride (No Distance Limit)
US$1.75
$1.75
45%
New York 1 Ride (No Distance Limit)
US$2.00
$2.00
52%
Los Angeles 1 Ride (No Distance Limit)
US$1.25
$1.25
32%
Sydney Single Trip
AU$2.20
$1.65
43%
Perth 1 Zone (3 hours re-travel within zone)
AU$2.00
$1.50
39%
Tokyo 1-6km Regular
¥160
$1.52
39%
Moscow 1 Trip (No Time Limit)
7 Rubles
$0.25
6%
Berlin Single Ticket Journey (Zone A-B)
€2.00
$2.64
69%