Underground and Overpaid: Equity Theory in Practice

Abstract

In March 1982 the fares on the London underground and buses were doubled and became the highest transit fares in the world. The preceding October, the socialist-dominated Greater London Council had cut fares by 25 percent and had increased property taxes to cover the lost revenue. This attempt to shift the costs from the relatively poor (users of public transportation) to the relatively rich (owners of property) failed when Britain's highest court ruled that the tax increase was illegal. To make up lost revenues, the authorities at London Transport doubled transit fares. Are the new fares fair