Has Sadiq gone completely bonkers??

[GroundAlmonds]

How exactly does this make sense?

He wants non-Londoners (drivers) to pay a charge to enter Greater London, because...oh it’s complicated. I’ll link.

He does realise that Londoners drive out of London to wear out non-London roads too, though, right? It’s literally two way traffic.

@Hayeahnobut

It's not political, this was an independent report from the following experts:

TC Chew, Global Rail Business leader at Arup, Chartered Engineer and a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering;
Stephen Glaister CBE, Emeritus Professor of Transport and Infrastructure at Imperial College London, a member of the Board of TfL 2000 to 2008 and member of the 2019 Oakervee Review of HS2;
Bridget Rosewell CBE, Chair of Atom Bank and of the M6 Toll company and a Commissioner for the National Infrastructure Commission;
Sir Jonathan Taylor, Vice President of the European Investment Bank from 2013 until 2019.

It's a good idea to do some research before jumping to conclusions.

It is political that the Gvt are putting pressure on TfL

They can bail out EasyJet etc, but are making life tough for a Labour Mayor.

Of course the report / feasibility study is done by independent consultants.

But they don't make the decisions.

He's an absolute moron in pretty much everything he does.

Clamped down on stop and search, knife crime soars what a fucking idiot.

@FAQs I agree that there is business to be had in London areas - but if it becomes too hard for business people to be able to drive in or park - well hard for them & indeed the people who want to employ people - just a point

I agree a huge factor here is the govt refusing to bail out tfl and so there’s a massive need to raise revenue. IF it replaces the daily congestion charge then that would be a plus.

(Real Londoners tend not to take tubes - its nicer staying above ground.)

lol. This is absolute bollocks needmoresleep and a smidge Sherry and elitist. Of course real Londoners use the tube.

‘snooty’ not Sherry. Think my autocorrect’s on the sherry.

Why should he be bailed out?

He froze the fares for years, he let Crossrail overrun badly, the TFL managers are highly paid, free travel abounds.

Maybe he should have done his sums better.

His decisions are ridiculous. The enhanced congestion fare now is killing Central London instead if helping shops and hospitality.

@ChardonnaysPetDragon

Why should he be bailed out?

He froze the fares for years, he let Crossrail overrun badly, the TFL managers are highly paid, free travel abounds.

Maybe he should have done his sums better.

His decisions are ridiculous. The enhanced congestion fare now is killing Central London instead if helping shops and hospitality.

It’s easing traffic congestion

And hasn’t Crossrail been going for a fair while before his time? I remember it being a client years ago

Ackshually it was sneery not snooty. If anyone cares

Sounds like a great idea.

I cannot wait to vote in the next mayoral elections for absolutely anyone but him.
Well said -total chancer just a load of hot air and puff.

the reason he's dome it is not for easing congestion, it's for revenue. Congestion is bad where the temporary cycle lines are and he keeps pushing those.

Also, if he cares about pollution, then where are the thousands of trees he promised? Apparently the whole of Oxford street was going to be a tree lined paradise. Where is that?

And yes, Crossrail was overrunning, but it's now a joke. Also, Hammersmith Bridge? What is he doing about that?

HeddaGarbler. What an odd comment.

Buses are not elitist at all. In my experience Londoners tend to know their bus routes, so are more willing to just get on a bus, rather than flog to an underground station and then walk miles in an interchange. (And we know where not to change.)

And indeed buses might be the opposite of elitist. Buses are much cheaper, especially if you are travelling between zones, so preferred by locals with less money. I don’t know when you last sat on a London bus, but I assure you they tend not to be the preserve of the middle classes.

@ChardonnaysPetDragon

the reason he's dome it is not for easing congestion, it's for revenue. Congestion is bad where the temporary cycle lines are and he keeps pushing those.

Also, if he cares about pollution, then where are the thousands of trees he promised? Apparently the whole of Oxford street was going to be a tree lined paradise. Where is that?

And yes, Crossrail was overrunning, but it's now a joke. Also, Hammersmith Bridge? What is he doing about that?

Yes revenue too

I have no issue with that. It’s needed

And hasn’t Crossrail been going for a fair while before his time? I remember it being a client years ago

I think so, my DS is now 12 and I remember his dad going on about working with them when we first met so that was 2 years before DD so this cross rail has been knocking about for at least 14 years.

On side note there was something knocking about on my local “Nextdoor” forum that my LA are considering a “congestion charge ” just for the borough?!?! Naturally the locals are up in arms but between Sadiq and my LA I’m at a loss and if it wasn’t for the fact the car was written off a couple months back anyway, it would have certainly been binned in the upcoming months as it’s not worth the hassle anymore.

Yes, but he could have had revenue to keep TFL going by raising fares in line with inflation, keeping the salaries at a responsible level, keeping free travel at a manageable level. He didn't when he could do it, and now he's having a knee jerk and while raising revenue for his coffers he's strangling the West End.

Bad timing.

www.standard.co.uk/news/london/transport-for-london-earning-more-100000-a4495026.html

Is this responsible?

Public transport within london is frequent and reasonably priced. I was quite shocked when I moved out to commuterville and 1 single bus journey was about £5.
Both me and DH commute, but occassionally (maybe 4 or 5 times a year) he needs to take or collect stuff from work that is too heavy to transport without a car. If he goes during the week it costs about £50 + fuel , taking into account cc, rules and parking (compared to around £22 on his season ticket)
If its £3.50 for greater London I'd have to pay to visit any of my family. If we drive it takes 45 min, if we use public transport it would take about 1.5 hours.

@CuriousaboutSamphire sorry to interrupt the thread but what's the Cambridge model?

Cambridge traffic pre covid was shocking. Have I missed something?

Need my elitist comment wasn’t about BUSES. It was about you making a distinction between REAL Londoners and the presumably fake Londoners who tube it.

London buses take ages. Most journeys across London are quicker by bus than by tube. There are so many tube stations it’s unlikely it’s going to be “a clog” to get to one.

Pre covid tfl made 72% of their income from fares. With passenger numbers dropping to virtually nothing it was obvious that they would be in financial trouble. The report says they need to try to make their income less reliant on fares income. There are a number of things being proposed, increases in London council tax, the reduction of services and fare increases among those, as are operation changes to staff terms and conditions. Covid has gifted the Tory government the opportunity they’ve been waiting for to oust the labour mayor, break the rail unions and gain control of London transport. They stripped tfl of its operating grants, cross rail has been haemorrhaging money and predates Khan. The only part of tfl which made money before Covid was the London Underground which has been propping up the busses and other areas for years. A lot is made of the wages within tfl but across the rail industry operating staff earn the median wage and most senior management actually earn below the industry standard.

So because a similar industry pays big salaries it is OK for TFL to do that too? And then go whinging for a bail out?

And those 72% would have been a lot higher had TFL been managed better.

The point is that they have to be competitive within that industry to keep decent staff. It doesn’t matter how much the fares have been raised if nobody is paying them. Other rail companies received an unconditional bailout from the government. These companies have massively reduced their services. Tfl had to beg for months for funding that nowhere near covers what is needed. All the while being made to run full services to ‘maintain social distancing’

Of course atm tfl will be in dire straits. No matter what.

Unfortunately I think there is no love lost between Khan and Cons which doesn’t help

It does matter because those fares were frozen for 4 years, this is not just the last year. The free travel giveaways ran for 4 years. The huge salaries were paid all those years.

Also, services were down to the bare minimum during lockdown.