Taxi fares to rise

Tuesday 28 January 2020

Taxi fares will be restructured and increase by an average of 3.09% later this week.

Environment & Infrastructure has announced the price rise following a two-week consultation period earlier this month which garnered only four responses.

"Having previously published details of a proposed increase in maximum taxi fares for public comment, following the consultation period the Committee for the Environment & Infrastructure has confirmed an average increase of 3.09% will come into effect from 31st January 2020," said a spokesman for the Committee. 

"To accommodate the increase, the initial ‘Standing Charge’ has had to be increased for the first time in over 10 years. However, it is important to note that the distance that a customer can now travel for that initial charge has increased significantly.

"The taximeter will only start calculating additional fare increments of 20p after 1385.32 yards when previously it was just 246.50 yards."

Pictured: Standing charges are going up, but the cost of travelling is going down, which should see the maximum full journey cost go up by only 3%. 

Changes are coming in on Friday to reflect the increase in how much it costs to operate a taxi, based on The Halcrow Formula, which uses a taxi inflation formula (40%) and an average median earnings figure (60%) to produce the proposed percentage increase in fares.

Pictured: Some examples of how the new tariffs will apply in practice.