[badcppdev]

Many commuters have weekly, monthly, or even yearly passes and therefore would only be slightly annoyed by the 'unfairness'.

But more importantly the wage negotiations are very complicated as 80% of the money ultimately comes from the government and therefore politicians needs to be motivated. Politicians are mostly motivated by annoyed voters (and campaign contributions obviously).

[Symbiote]

Fares covered 71% of TfL expenditure in 2020/2021. That crashed to 27% during Covid, and is expected to be 65% this year.

Around 20% is commercial income (advertising, levies on new commercial buildings).

https://board.tfl.gov.uk/documents/s19826/TfL%20Budget%20202...