This is starting to go a bit off-topic but it does follow on from the thread title.
Capital projects such as Crossrail are accounted for differently than day-to-day operating costs. It’s the difference between capital expenditure (Capex) and operating expenditure (Opex). In the case of Crossrail some £4 billion of the Capex came from a levy on business rates in London and the amount raised by this means was not affected by the fares freeze. Similarly the £5.11 billion DfT/Treasury funding was also unaffected by the fares freeze
So the statement that total expenditure on Crossrail is higher than maintenance expenditure is correct - but that is not the point. Capex is time limited, Opex is continuous. Over four years the fares freeze caused an estimated loss of nearly £650 million in TfL’s income, over 10 years this is £1.5 billion. This is serious money out of the Opex budget as the pre-2016 deal was that TfL would cover its day-to-day operations out of the fare box and the Government would fund Capex.
Fare levels are only one of the factors that people consider when making travel choices - others are suitability of the mode(s), frequency, times and so on. Not just the fare level but simplicity and ease of payment also play an important role and in this respect the availability of Oyster and other contactless payment methods with daily and weekly capping make the cost of the individual transaction less significant to the purchaser. So, yes, at the margins higher fares may dissuade some people from travelling, mostly not.
But for the operator a fares freeze means that the income is lost for many years into the future as it is subsequently very difficult to raise fares more quickly to recover the loss. The issue is simply ‘How much of the operational costs should be covered by fares and how much by tax?’ although in theory a Government can make as much money available as it wishes, in practice this is not so. In the case of TfL, and the railways in general, the more of the pot of money that goes into day-to-day operations, the less will be available for enhancements.
You pays your money and you makes your choice.