TfL plans for £4.2bn more cuts December 4, 2013 Transport for London has pledged to save a further £4.2bn over the next seven years – though its plans assume that fares will rise by more than inflation after 2014’s price hikes. TfL has already planned £12bn-worth of savings up to 2021. The extra reductions, sketched out in yesterday’s business plan, will come from closing [...]
Tube and bus fares rise in line with inflation December 3, 2013 THE COST of public transport in London will rise by an average of 3.1 per cent in January, the Mayor of London announced yesterday along with a claim that the change represents a real-term price freeze. Some tickets, including the single bus fare paid in cash and pay-as-you-go daily caps, will be kept at 2013 [...]
Letters to the Editor – 04/12 – Tube fare freeze, Best of Twitter December 3, 2013 Tube fare freeze A real terms transport fares freeze in January is welcome news. But TfL could continue to freeze fares at inflation in future years. It has an annual turnover just shy of £10bn and a capital investment programme in the tens of billions. Freezing fares at inflation for a year costs just £34m [...]
Forget Gatwick bluster: A mega-hub east of London is our only real option December 1, 2013 THE AIRPORT debate is hotting up: the last few days have seen the chief executive of Gatwick Airport practically carpet bombing every media outlet in sight, trying to convince us that expansion at his airport is the only game in town. It sounds a good story (even if one mired in self-interest and distortion of [...]
Tube set to open all night on Fridays and Saturdays November 21, 2013 THE TUBE will keep running through the night at weekends from 2015, in a plan hailed by firms as changing the face of London’s night-time economy. However, unions threatened strike action after TfL announced alongside the night Tube that it was scrapping ticket office staff. Mayor Boris Johnson said London will be “a city fit [...]
Northern Ireland has highest government spend per head in UK November 21, 2013 Government spending in the UK was about the same in 2012/13 as it was in 2011/12. Out of just under £560bn spent in 2012-13, England accounted for £456bn, Scotland £54bn, Wales £30bn and Northern Ireland £20bn. When it comes to spend per head, Northern Ireland topped the chart at £10,876 – 124 per cent of [...]
Tories call for sponsored loos to cut TfL fares October 30, 2013 LONDONERS face another fare rise announcement this month – but Conservative assembly members at City Hall reckon they can cut fares and improve your commute. Their solution? Get sponsors for everything. And we mean everything: from TV screens to station lifts and even toilets. “It is ludicrous that TfL is currently splashing out millions of pounds [...]
Sponsored tube stations could fund free 4G, lifts, TV screens and underground toilets October 30, 2013 Sponsorship of the Oyster system and other sponsorship opportunities could allow Transport for London (TfL) to actively improve stations – introducing free wireless and 4G connectivity, TV screens, lifts, and even toilets for passengers. The report “Sealing the Deal: TfL sponsorship feasibility study” by Gareth Bacon of GLA Conservatives says that there is a potential [...]
Chaos in Whitehall as crane collapses onto Cabinet Office October 28, 2013 A crane has collapsed onto the Cabinet Office as St Jude's winds batter the capital. Whitehall has been cordoned off between Parliament Square and Horse Guards Avenue, and deputy prime minister Nick Clegg has announced the postponement of today's press conference. Whitehall sealed off. Blue flashing lights outside Gwydyr. Crane has collapsed onto Cabinet [...]
More passengers set to feel the squeeze on London’s busy buses October 28, 2013 THE CITY’S buses will become more crowded unless Transport for London adds more services to meet soaring demand, a report out today from the London Assembly claims. The assembly has called on the Mayor of London and TfL to pinpoint which routes they would improve in the coming years. The number of bus trips rose [...]