Can banning ‘bare beating’ force people to wear headphones on the tube? May 29, 2025 ‘Headphone dodgers’ who listen to music on the tube with the sound up are easy to hate but ‘bare beating’ is a problem that is harder to solve than you think, argues James Ford Public transport is often seen as an inherently good thing. Done well, transport policy can be a silver bullet that solves [...]
Transport for London proposes 20 per cent hike to Congestion Charge May 27, 2025 Transport for London (TfL) has proposed a fresh hike to the Congestion Charge from January next year, sparking backlash from small business owners. London’s transport body said it would hike fees from £15 to £18, a 20 per cent increase and the first since 2020, according to an announcement on Tuesday. Drivers will then be [...]
The Elizabeth Line has clocked enough miles for 45 round trips to the moon May 23, 2025 The Elizabeth Line has clocked up enough miles in its first three years to reach the moon and back 45 times, it has been revealed. More than 600m passenger journeys have been made on the UK’s single busiest railway service since operations began in 2022, according to Transport for London (TfL). That means London’s ‘Lizzie [...]
Cable fault causes London Underground disruption and fire May 12, 2025 A cable fault has caused travel disruption and a fire in London. The Elizabeth, Bakerloo, Jubilee and Northern lines were all disrupted on Monday afternoon after a fault on the National Grid’s transmission network. The malfunction also caused a blaze at an electrical substation in the Cunningham Place and Aberdeen Place area in Maida Vale, [...]
M&S and Co-op: UK retailers brace for cyber attacks May 1, 2025 Two of the UK’s most recognisable retail brands – Marks and Spencer and Co-op – found themselves at the centre of a growing cyber security storm this past week. From suspended online orders at M&S to locked-down systems at Co-op, the message from the frontline is clear: cyber threats are no longer just an IT [...]
Sadiq Khan is squandering the success of the Elizabeth Line May 1, 2025 Despite the popularity and success of the Elizabeth Line, other major transport projects in the capital are in limbo, writes James Ford Everybody loves the Elizabeth Line, right? There are the sleek, open-plan trains, the breathtaking, well-designed stations and, perhaps best of all, there are the smooth and swift journey times that have created new [...]
TfL launches fresh crackdown on fare evasion with new measures April 30, 2025 Transport for London (TfL) plans to expand its team of investigators as part of a suite of new measures to crack down on fare evasion. London’s transport body is aiming to halve fare evasion across all its services, which costs hundreds of millions each year, to 1.5 per cent or less by 2030. The rate [...]
Black cabs stand ready to compete with Uber, but not in a race to the bottom April 24, 2025 The London tax trade is a rigged market where app-based operators have enjoyed years of political indulgence while black cabs are subjected to an ever-tougher regulatory environment, says Mark White James Ford’s recent City AM column – ‘The London taxi trade is dying – and it’s not Uber’s fault’ – is less a diagnosis than [...]
Don’t abolish the Mayor, just get rid of Sadiq Khan April 24, 2025 The problem facing London is not the institution of the Mayor or the London Assembly that scrutinises him – it’s the incumbent, Sadiq Khan, says Neil Garratt Tony Lodge’s recent article in City AM questioning the value of London’s Mayoralty after 25 years provokes an important debate, but reaches the wrong conclusion. The problem facing [...]
Scrap the GLA and abolish the Mayor of London April 22, 2025 25 years after Tony Blair created them, it’s time to admit that the Mayor and the GLA have fundamentally failed to deliver better transport, better policing and a credible growth agenda for London, says Tony Lodge Londoners have spent the last month nervously opening their council tax bills. Readers will know it is a relatively [...]