London mayor Boris Johnson had to compete with noisy demonstrators on Friday as he announced lower-than-planned public transport fare rises in the capital for 2012.
Supporters of Mr Johnson's mayoral rival Ken Livingstone donned Boris look-alike face masks and chanted as he announced average bus and Tube fare rises of 5.6% in January.
Fares had been due to go up by around 7%, but the Government has stumped up an extra £136 million to help limit the rise.
Some of the rises are as little as 3.8%, but others, such as the adult cash fare on rail services in central London, are going up 7.5%.
Arriving by bike for his announcement at Finsbury Park station in north London and sporting shorter-than-usual blond hair, Mr Johnson remarked that he liked the demonstrators' masks but had little time for their call for fare cuts.
"Labour cuts would mean reductions in services. They would jeopardise bus routes and the 24-hour (senior citizens) freedom passes," he said.
"It would be criminal to cut infrastructure investment. Every penny of this extra cash will go towards keeping fares as low as possible.
"That is very good news in the current economic climate and, even better, the unprecedented level of investment to improve London's transport network will continue unabated."