Author: Phil

I am really pleased to see that Boris Johnson is promoting Richmond’s Community Toilet Scheme. Ealing has been looking at this too, see paper here.

One of the biggest businesses in London is Transport for London. More public conveniences in and around TfL’s estate would be welcomed by Londoners.

As the mayor controls TfL and its budgets it would be good to hear from him what he is going to do to himself rather than hearing from him exhortation to businesses to sign up for a scheme that is run by Richmond council. I think many boroughs are interested in this scheme but it is their responsibility and their budgets that would be involved.

A particular problem in our neighbourhood is the tube staff not letting minicab drivers use their loos at South Ealing. Considering that the minicab drivers are all vetted and registered by TfL it should be no great hardship to give these people access to tube loos. I think some customers might occasionally enjoy a leak at South Ealing too.

At the very least TfL could give minicab and black cab drivers access to all TfL staff loos. Then TfL might think about staff loos on certain bus routes. It might check that all staff of tenants of units on its premises have access to toilets. Then it might think about how more of its estate could be set aside for public toilets. Over to you Boris.

I do feel sorry for young mother Maja Krogh fined £50 for not paying her 90p bus fare and given a criminal record, albeit a temporary one (see today’s Evening Standard). That said, she might have forgotten to swipe her card every day for all we know. Too many people still do across London’s transport system.

Transport for London’s crusade against fare dodging would have more credibility if all of its staff consistently confronted fare dodgers all the time. Too many staff shrug their shoulders when people tailgate you through ticket barriers or fail to swipe on to buses. It seems staff can only stand up to fare dodgers when they are in gangs of ticket inspectors backed up with police. It looks unfortunate to say the least to see an inspector accompanied by an officer round on a mother with a young child.

But TfL must collect its fares. In 2006/7 every bus journey cost TfL 87p. Unfortunately it only managed to collect an average of 55p per journey. As a result TfL’s bus operations (forget buying the buses in the first place, just running them) need subsidising to the tune of £617 million. If TfL could rouse itself to collect 90p per journey, it could run buses at a profit.

Today the papers are covering the publication of the 6th Congestion Charge Monitoring Report by TfL on Wednesday, see here. Or rather not in many cases. Nothing in the Standard and only a perfunctory piece in the Telegraph.

The Guardian had a news piece and some editorial.

The Guardian says:

London’s roads, it emerged yesterday, are just as snarled up as they were before the congestion charge was introduced five years ago. So was it a costly mistake? Quite the opposite. The charge netted £137m last year and has cut the number of cars entering the central zone each day by 70,000. Unfortunately, road diggers and construction mean those who do drive in spend too much time in jams.

The Guardian is quick to crow about the £137 million surplus the Congestion Charge apparently makes. Typically TfL figures do not include indirect overheads – when TfL’s accounts get past the Audit Commission this number will be down below £100 million.

The Guardian is also not quick to point out that £73 million of this income is from fines. It’s a pretty rubbish system that takes over £250 million off Londoners and puts back less than £100 million most of which is fines income.

Even that money is not free and clear. This infrastructure cost about £320 million to set up. Over the five years or so of operation of this system it has taken about £1.2 billion off Londoners and spent just about every penny on … the system. It has generated very little net cash.

The Congestion Charge had failed on every level.