A single Tube journey will cost £3 instead of the current £2 while a single bus journey will increase from the current £1.20 to £1.50. If you want to avoid the increase than you have to get an Oyster card and as a further encouragement they drop those fares from £1.70 to £1.50 (half the cash fare).

On the buses, a cash single will increase from £1.20 to £1.50 in January, while Oyster users will pay just 80p at or £1 in the morning peak.

Roger Evans, Conservative chairman of the London Assembly Transport Committee, said: "How can the Mayor expect people to leave their cars at home when bus and Tube tickets are spiralling out of control?

"Ken Livingstone obviously has not added up his sums correctly. He needs to boost his coffers through the already fed-up and frustrated commuter. London already has the most expensive transport system in the world.

Apparently a born liar, Mr Livingstone told a news conference at City Hall that the increased fares would raise an estimated £80 million when the change takes place in January. However this contradicts his other claims and makes any sense. His attempts to missled were revealed when he said that it would be inexplicable if people continued to pay cash after January.

The claims that the cash fare increase would boost income by an estimated £80 million from buses and £50 million on the Tube, are obviously a lie as if people switch to oyster as intended there would infact be a significant drop in income from fares.

Mr Livingstone has admited that the aim is to get more people to use the Oyster card technology which enables the authorities to monitor the movements of individuals using public transport in a similar way to the number plate tracking technologies already employed in the capital. He threatened, "The simple message is that you don't have to pay the new cash fares - switch to Oyster".

Ken claimed it was "bizarre" that people were currently prefering to pay with cash rather than get the centrally tracked oyster cards.